Stimulus programme - Cynicism should be put aside

With Ireland’s unemployment rate a depressing 14.5%, the fifth highest in the EU, tens of thousands of people who would prefer to be working than on the dole will watch with keen anticipation the Government’s approval this week of a €2bn package aimed at stimulating growth in the economy.

It is high time the Government got down to the business of honouring its election promises. A jaundiced public, weary of an overdose of political spin, has seen little by way of substance to suggest the economy is turning around.

Most of the 440,600 people signing on the dole will look with renewed hope to the stimulus programme being financed from the National Pension Reserve Fund and by public-private partnerships. It will be the first concrete demonstration of this Government’s so-far unproven capacity to deliver on the jobs front.