THE TAOISEACH has accused the Opposition of being “dismissive of everything” after Fine Gael criticised the manner of a meeting he held yesterday with State agencies on the jobs crisis.
Speaking at a joint news conference with a number of agency chiefs, Mr Cowen rejected suggestions that the meeting was a publicity stunt, and said it was about ensuring the organisations were focused on retaining and creating jobs and that the Government had the right jobs policies in place.
Enterprise Ireland chief executive Frank Ryan said it had the opportunity to give the Government a further update on the performance of indigenous industries, while Paul O’Toole, director general of training agency Fás, said: “We’re focusing right now on helping people to keep contact with the labour market, to keep their CVs up to date, to fill skills gaps or acquire new skills and new opportunities.”
At the news conference in Government Buildings, Mr Cowen was asked what he would say to a newly qualified graduate who was trying to decide whether to emigrate or to await an economic upturn in Ireland.
He replied: “We will maximise the options here at home and there may well be opportunities abroad that they want to take up at this time as well; that’s a matter of individual rather than involuntary choice hopefully.
“My advice is to say, there is a future for us here in this country, we’re on the road to recovery, we’ll have to maintain a very disciplined approach on the budgetary and financial side, clearly.”
In a statement, Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Richard Bruton described the meeting as “little more than a glitzy press opportunity”. Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said “if today’s meeting represents a refocusing of Government attention on the unemployment crisis then that will be a positive development”, but cautioned the public would expect to see early results if this was not going to be regarded as “yet another empty PR exercise”.
Lorna Sigginsadds:The Irish public is "exhausted with negativity", former EU commissioner Pádraig Flynn said in Galway yesterday.
Mr Flynn, who gave a lecture on EU disability policy at NUI Galway last evening, said Mr Cowen had a “really tough agenda to be addressed between now and the new year”.
Acknowledging that he knew “a lot about heaves” during his own political career, Mr Flynn said Mr Cowen was “in position” and should remain so.
