Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No, it does not. The summer economic statement lays out our forecasts for how we believe the economy is going to perform. We believe there is a possibility that the labour market could move to that level of employment. One person being unemployed is one person too many for me. However, at the peak of an artificially driven boom in our country, the unemployment rate was still 4.5%. As such, there is a level below which it is very difficult to drive that figure, principally because of the number of people who may be long-term unemployed. What we have there is a forecast, not an objective.