Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will begin with the issues raised by Senator Healy Eames. I reiterate that there is no issue which is more urgent for Europe and ourselves than the issue of youth unemployment. The level of unemployment here at 14.8% is too high and we must get it down. That is the reason the singular focus of Government is towards growing the economy and the creation of jobs. There is a particular problem of youth unemployment which we share right across the European Union, about which there must be an urgency to address. This is not an issue on which we can afford to spend an inordinate amount of time holding seminars and hearings, undoubtedly worthy of comment, on what is the best way to deal with it. There is an urgency about dealing with it. I do not think there is a single silver bullet approach that will deal with it. We have to deal with it at a number of levels. The compact for jobs and growth agreed by the European Council in June is part of addressing the issue. The €120 billion committed to the compact, completion of the Single Market, the completion of trade agreements with countries outside the European Union, such as the US, Japan and Canada, all have enormous potential for growth in the EU economy as well as the measures we are taking to promote employment by attracting inward investment.

The Commission will present the youth transition proposals in December. I expect the youth guarantee scheme will form part of the proposal and it is an issue we want to pursue during the course of the Irish Presidency. These measures are specifically geared to addressing youth unemployment. I am not sure I would agree with Professor Pissarides in his view that one can make a distinction between recurrent spending and investment spending in this context, particularly in the area of youth unemployment, much of which is around issues of apprenticeship, training and further education. It is not possible always to make the distinction between recurrent spending and investment.