1,300 jobs promised but only 130 are in place
On April 18 last year famously dubbed Golden Thursday by the Tánaiste herself Bertie Ahern and Mary Harney between them promised 1,300 jobs in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Birr.
However, Ms Harney was yesterday forced to concede that just 130 of those jobs are now in place.
The revelation comes as the Government stands accused of engineering another electioneering coup with its promise to decentralise more than 10,000 civil servants to rural locations six months ahead of local elections.
On Golden Thursday last year, Ms Harney announced 400 jobs in Thompson NETg in Limerick and Birr and 600 jobs in Church Insurance in Galway.
The same day the Taoiseach in Cork trumpeted the creation of 300 Elan jobs in Macroom.
The Tánaiste's press release at the time confidently read: "This means almost 1,000 new jobs for the West and Midlands in the course of a single day surely a Golden Thursday."
However, pressured by Labour's Brendan Howlin during Dáil questions yesterday, the Tánaiste was forced to admit that all but 130 jobs were lost through closures or had simply never materialised.
Mr Howlin accused the Progressive Democrat leader of empty promises designed to win votes.
"I am taken by the tone of the Tánaiste's response to this question. She is positively hurt by the suggestion that electioneering could have been contributory to the timing of these announcements.
"In that context, why did the Tánaiste attribute the name 'golden Thursday' to this series of job announcements made at the edge of the general election campaign?" he said.
All accusations of political motivation were rejected by Ms Harney who said she had been asked by the IDA to announce the jobs .
"I did not go after the IDA looking for projects out of the bag to announce in the run up to the election," she said.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny seized on comments made by Mr Ahern to claim the motivation behind decentralisation was political.
A Dáil remark by the Taoiseach: "Those who are in here try to stay here. That is the code of ethics," was seized on by Mr Kenny.
"This is the clearest indication yet from the head of Government that the process that resulted in the announcements regarding decentralisation was motivated solely by party political interests," he said.
