Welfare cuts to fund ‘job bank’

LOOMING cuts in the social welfare budget could be used to help fund an investment bank to boost job creation, it emerged last night.

The Government appears confident it will win approval from the EU/ECB/IMF troika to use money saved in the upcoming comprehensive spending review for the €1 billion initiative aimed at funding start-up companies and ailing small businesses.

The Strategic Investment Bank is set to be the centrepiece of an otherwise bleak December budget as the Coalition hopes to silence critics who branded its May jobs initiative a flop.