Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to stay all day but I would like to get a chance to answer the question. The truth is that we inherited an economy that was losing 90,000 jobs per year. That is 7,000 jobs per month. The latest CSO figures show that we have added 20,000 jobs in the last 12 months. In respect of the private sector, we are adding 2,000 jobs per month. That is a dramatic transformation. If one looks at what is happening beneath that, one will find that the IDA has had the best two years in a decade and Enterprise Ireland has had its best year in five years. There is a real transition going on in our economy in certain sectors which we discussed earlier. Part of the domestic banking sector continues to have problems but we are seeing the emergence of new strong sectors. That is ultimately the response to the challenge of emigration and youth unemployment.

We need to create more employment and the Government has put in place a number of innovative approaches to deal with this. We have done it through our action plan for jobs, the strategic investment fund and our ability to find innovative ways of funding stimulus at a time when we cannot use conventional borrowing. That is the way in which we will create new employment and deal with the scourge of emigration.

In respect of youth unemployment, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, has set this as a very high priority. She has successfully negotiated the agreement at European level to make this a top priority for Europe. Her agreement will now release €6 billion in funding for youth employment initiatives across the EU. We will also be developing that.

As regards the Deputy's specific suggestion, this month the Minister, Deputy Burton, will be announcing a new scheme whereby an employer can take on a person who has been out of work for 12 months and get a subsidy of €72 per week which will be paid monthly in arrears. That is a straightforward cash support to help businesses which are in a position to recruit to take people off the dole.

There are a lot of initiatives going on precisely to deal with the challenge the Deputy has set. It is, and remains, the Government's firm purpose to deal with the employment crisis. That is what gets us up in the morning every day. That is what drives Ministers each day to seek to resolve this matter, which is the central crisis for the economy.

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