Four years on from the General Election, Ireland is recovering and we’re not going back – Harris

“It’s four years to the day from the 2011 General Election. Today, new jobs figures show that 90,000 jobs have been created since 2012 and Ireland’s bond yields have fallen below 1% for the first time,” said Simon Harris TD, Minister of State at the Department of Finance.

“Two figures today demonstrate how far we have come since Fianna Fáil wrecked this country. The last Fianna Fáil Government destroyed 300,000 jobs, almost killed the economy and drove our borrowing costs up, forcing us into a bailout.

“In contrast, our borrowing costs are now below one percent for the first time and 90,000 more people are working since the launch of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs in 2012.

“In 2011 we went to the people with a plan to create jobs and restore the public finances. Now our focus is on securing the recovery that is beginning to take hold by creating 40,000 this year and restoring full employment by 2018.

“We can’t go back to the devastated country that Fianna Fáil left in 2011. We’re not going back to the high-tax, wild spending approach of Fianna Fáil, whose strategy was to throw money at everything and plan for nothing. 

“In contrast to our stable economic plan, Fianna Fáil has presented no plans and no policies. They haven’t told us how they would create a single job or reform public services. Their only policy is to maintain the high tax burden on working people, levied as a result of their own recklessness.”