Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Fáiltím an deis labhairt ar an abhar tábhachtach seo. Gabhaim buíochas le Sinn Féin as an t-ábhar seo a chur os ár gcomhair anocht. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this and commend Sinn Féin on putting this very worthwhile topic before us for debate. We can never afford to lose track of this and take our eye off the ball so I commend Sinn Féin on bringing it back into focus. This is a chance for us to put on record our different views and challenge ourselves on what we are doing about this issue.

Some 5.6 million young people in the 28 EU countries are unemployed as of September this year. That is more than one in five young people across the EU and as high as one in two in countries such as Spain and Greece. That is a tragedy by any standards and something about which none of us can afford become complacent. Earlier in the debate austerity was mentioned several times. Austerity is blamed for all our problems, and youth unemployment is no different. Germany has one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in the EU at 7.8% and there is no more austere country and no greater supporter of posterity. The youth unemployment rate increase is almost 50% higher at 57% and Greece is one of the least austere countries, it certainly was in the last decade. We may have to review our attitude that austerity is to blame for all of this.

It is not a government's place to create jobs. One of the difficulties this economy had was struggling to cope with a bloated public service and all the jobs that were created by Government but could not be sustained by the Irish economy during the last decade. It is a government's job to create an environment that leads to the creation of sustainable and real jobs. For every 10,000 people who leave the live register there is a saving of €90 million to the Exchequer.

I welcome the range of initiatives this Government has created. I completely reject the criticism levelled at schemes such as JobBridge. JobBridge offers people a choice between going to work and gaining experience for €50 extra per week or remaining on the dole. Those who challenge it falsely argue that it is a choice between a real job and JobBridge, but that is not the case. The other criticism is displacement, but JobBridge is merely a work placement that lasts no more than nine months so one cannot say they are filling in and preventing a real job. Gateway is another worthy initiative.

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