Labour Party is delivering on jobs

Dear sir - I refer to the editorial in your edition dated 14th May regarding the government's need to follow through on its job promises. I also refer to Meath East TD, Labour's Dominic Hannigan, and his excellent report 'Job Creation - Ideas for Meath', which is referred to in the editorial and detailed elsewhere in your newspaper. Since you went to press, the government has announced the Jobs Initiative which will contribute towards an environment where the growth of sustainable jobs can flourish. Contained within the Jobs Initiative is a focus on the potential for growth in the tourism sector. Improvements in tourism should benefit County Meath and I refer specifically to the VAT reduction to nine per cent on tourist services, including restaurants, catering, hotels, theatre and cinema. County Meath has a lot to offer visitors and would be successfully marketed through Deputy Hannigan's proposal for the creation of a Meath Boyne Valley 'super brand' to promote the county. Also contained within the Jobs Initiative is an additional €30m in government funding in 2011 for retrofitting homes in order to make them more energy-efficient and thus lower energy bills for the consumer. The extra funding will support 2,000 jobs in 2011 for indigenous companies. It will promote the green building industry which Deputy Hannigan refers to in his report, together with the community wind farms and biomass fuel industry identified by Deputy Hannigan as potential niche growth areas in County Meath. The Labour Party indicated through its recent election promises that it would reverse the minimum wage back up to €8.65 per hour. It has fulfilled this promise through the Jobs Initiative. This will help dispel the idea "I am better off on the dole than working for €7.65 an hour" and hence reduce numbers on the unemployment register. Elsewhere in your edition dated 14th May, Deputy Peadar Tóibín laments the lack of a government jobs stimulus. Although the idea of a jobs stimulus is praiseworthy, he fails to indicate where the money for this should come from. His comment that the Universal Social Charge (USC) is being used to fund 'failed banks' rings hollow when one recalls that his party, Sinn Fein, voted in favour of the bank guarantee in the Dail (the Labour Party voted against). In fact, the Sinn Fein finance spokesperson, Pearse Doherty, TD, openly welcomed the guarantee at the time. Sinn Fein may claim that they thought the bank guarantee only covered deposits and not bank liabilities. However, they should have checked this out before voting in favour of it. Deputy Tóibín's claim of deflationary government economic policy is very ironic when viewed against his party's implementation of right-wing economic austerity measures, including health cutbacks, in Northern Ireland. Criticisms through other media channels of the Jobs Initiative from Fianna Fail are particularly irritating given that party's culpability for the present crisis. Let us not forget that it was the arrogance and incompetence of successive Fianna Fail governments over the past 14 years that has left us with this legacy of unemployment and debt. The Jobs Initiative, less than eight weeks after the Labour Party took office, is the first step in the process of getting people back to work and reversing the damage wrought by the Fianna Fail party. Yours, Brian Flanagan, Navan Labour Party.