Sinn Féin publishes job creation plan

Sinn Féin has outlined the details of an employment and enterprise plan which it said could create up to 156,000 long and short-term jobs and retain a further 15,000.

The plan, which would cost €13 billion to implement, involves investment in areas such as broadband infrastructure, school building, the retrofitting of homes, the establishment of 50 primary health care centres and the expansion of the State's wind and wave energy industries.

It says 5,000 jobs could be created by reviving the sugar beet industry in the southeast region with a €350 million investment, and that further jobs could be created by investing in water infrastructure, proceeding with the A5 Donegal to Dublin dual carriageway and completing regeneration projects in Dublin and Limerick.

The plan would be paid for by €5.8 billion in discretionary funding from the National Pension Reserve Fund, €3 billion of incentivised investment from the private pension sector and more than €1.5 billion from the European Investment Bank.

The remainder would be made up by not proceeding with €2.6 billion in cuts to the capital expenditure budget which have already been announced by the Government.

The party said it would outline how it would balance the books via spending and taxation measures in its pre-budget submission next month.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the document, which runs to some 60 pages, was a fully costed and socially responsible means to create and sustain jobs.

He said successive governments had shown that one cannot cut one's way out of recession. He siad  it appeared the Coalition had no strategic vision to cease the rise in unemployment and stop the stream of people emigrating from the State.

The party's jobs spokesman Peadar Tóibín said a net loss of some 33,000 jobs had been recorded since the Government outlined its plan to get 100,000 people back in employment.

He said the plan had been submitted to Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Jobs and Enterprise Richard Bruton for their consideration.