May I clarify what Rosaria Austin wrote (January 17).

The disputed figure of 20,000 jobs which the Government claims to have been created in the past five years are not new full-time jobs. They include many part-time jobs while many others are just multiple recordings of job changes.

Let me explain. A leaves a job to take up another. B replaces A, C replaces B and so on. One new job has been created but ETC records notification of three or more engagements. If thousands of operations have been carried out at Mater Dei Hospital, thousands of other patients would still be waiting to undergo the operation they need.

Lastly, but significantly, the €500 a week increase that ministers gave themselves was only suspended. They did not refund what they had received. Thus, a new Nationalist Administration would presumably reactivate the increase after the election.