NOT A TIME TO RISK THE RECOVERY - KELLY

Issued : Monday 15 February, 2016

Speaking at the Launch of Standing Up for Ireland’s Future, Labour’s Election Manifesto:

It is a great pleasure to be at this location for today’s launch, one of the most important moments of the campaign. I know how much work Joe Costello has put in to the entire Grangegorman project. This Manifesto is about the future, and this location represents that future.

Five years ago, this campus was a building site. And just as this college has been built over that time, so too we have been engaged in a job of constructing a stable and balanced economic recovery.

And we have achieved that.

• Two million people are at work.
• We have the fastest growing economy in Europe.
• Confidence is growing.

What we have achieved together is astonishing. It has taken five years of hard work to get this far.

The Labour Party entered government in 2011 ago with our eyes wide open.

We knew we faced a challenge, but the Irish people gave us the job of fixing the economy and delivering a recovery.

And in Leinster House, every one of us, including many first-time TDs and Senators, applied ourselves to do just that.

But if there’s one thing we have learned from our recent past, it is that we cannot take this recovery for granted.

The international economic outlook is extremely uncertain: turmoil on the markets, a slowdown in China, a Europe still recovering from the Euro crisis.

Now is not the time to take a risk. Now is not the time to let the others play with our recovery.

Let’s not waste the recovery on those who squandered the last one or who would gamble with this one.

Let’s use the recovery to build a fairer Ireland.

The manifesto that we are publishing today is prudent and achievable.

It sets out a clear vision for the future, based on Labour Party principles of opportunity and equality.

Ends