Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

Essentially, any time we discuss employment in this House we get this lecture about how many jobs have been created in the past ten years. One could get the same lecture from Fine Gael and Labour, that when we were in government last 1,000 jobs were being created a week. I am not interested in any lectures about the past, I am interested in the future and what is happening today. Unemployment is going up and the Government is in denial about it.

This is a simple question. Does the Minister of State stand over the Government's projection of 5.5% unemployment at the end of this year or does he accept the reality, what everyone is saying, that unemployment will rise to 6% this year and higher next year, and that unemployment is effectively the human cost of economic mismanagement by the Government?

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