Gilmore says jobs are main priority

Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore has today said his main priority should he be elected as taoiseach in the next election would be to create jobs.

Speaking on RTÉ radio this morning, Mr Gilmore said that while there had been a focus on public finances and banks, not enough was being done to assist the more than 450,000 people who are out of work.

Mr Gilmore, who yesterday delivered the opening address to the Labour Party's two-day parliamentary party meeting in Roscommon, said he believed a strategic investment bank should be set up with some €2 million from the National Pension Reserve Fund "before Fianna Fáil gives away all of that money to broken banks".

"On the jobs issue, we have proposed the establishing of a strategic investment bank whose job would be to provide credit to small and medium-sized enterprises, to provide the finance for the infrastructure work that needs to be done and to get economic activity moving in this country so that we can get people back to work," he said.

"We've also said we would establish in any budget a specific jobs fund which would be used to target employment (and) we've also proposed a number of short-term measures that should be used to get people back into employment, like for example, the buildings of the schools programme ... and the transport programme.

Mr Gilmore said he was against defaulting saying that the country had to honour the bank guarantee. "I haven't argued for defaulting and we shouldn't default but we should seek to minimise the losses for the public purse and the taxpayer."

Mr Gilmore refused to commit to ruling out new taxes, a promise made by Fine Gael last week.

"I don't think anyone can make that commitment. I think that taxes and taxation are going to be part of getting out of the difficulties that we're in now. The areas the Labour Party is looking to in taxation are the tax reliefs, many of which are property-related, many of which relate to pensions for the highest earners in the country," he said.

Mr Gilmore told delegates in Roscommon yesterday that the Labour Party could lead the Government following the next election.

Speaking this morning, Mr Gilmore denied suggestions that he was getting "carried away" with polls which showed a sharp rise in support for the Labour Party.

"I've been saying for some time it's a three-way contest with Fianna Fáil and with Fine Gael. Politics is competitive and we're going to contest the election and make the case for a Labour-led government," he said.

However, Mr Gilmore once again ruled out a possible coalition with Fianna Fáil, saying the party needed to be put out of office.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O'Keeffe this afternoon rejected Labour's alternative policy platform, saying it "lacked credibility."

Mr O'Keeffe said Labour's plan to set up a strategic investment bank would need to generate private collateral by attracting deposits from the Irish banks, a move which would deplete capital resources and "have disastrous consequences for small businesses already struggling to get credit."

Mr O'Keefe claimed the party's policies do not stand up to even the most cursory scrutiny and said Mr Gilmore is being exposed as a "political tyre-kicker" who trades on public anxieties in a recession without offering a proper roadmap for recovery.

"Deputy Gilmore is the archetypal practitioner of fair-weather politics when what the country needs - and the Government is providing – is practical, courageous policy-making for jobs and a return to growth," he said.