Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome everybody. I can confirm that I am in Leinster House. Many issues have been touched on already and I want to give the witnesses a platform to expand on some of the points they want to make because due to the limited time available, committee members can speak for longer than the witnesses.

I want to focus on youth unemployment, an issue I raised with the Tánaiste in the Dáil last Thursday. The figure given was 59%, which has been challenged. Whatever the percentage is - it may not be 59% because of the nature of the pandemic - it is still high. The EU average is 17%. The UK figure is 14%. Our figure, while not the highest, is still remarkably high. As I often say, the economic model offered to young people before now involved a lot of insecure and low paid work. Some 23% of Irish workers are in low paid jobs. How can we tackle youth unemployment and ensure that we do not return to an economic model which is dependent on insecure, low-paid employment? That is for anybody to respond to.