Deputy Martin also highlighted some of Fianna Fáil’s employment proposals in advance of next week’s budget.
“We have made a range of proposals to government that they should develop a capital fund using the National Pensions Reserve; match that with a mandatory percentage of the private pension funds and create a fighting fund of €4 billion to invest in projects”, he said.
He cited the Limerick Regeneration Project as “a classic example” of a programme that could create jobs while improving people’s quality of life and living conditions.
Deputy Martin also proposed that state agencies and government departments should “double, or even treble” the number of young people employed as interns.
The party leader visited Limerick city last Friday when he met with a number of groups and local residents as part of a Fianna Fáil strategy that he describes as “the first phase of our renewal”.
“It’s really about the party becoming much more of a listening party. We’re listening to people and we’re looking afresh at issues and we’ll be developing policies as we go along”, he explained.