Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The figure of 252,000 unemployed is shocking. That is almost 100,000 more people out of work than this time last year. It is a shocking level of job losses. Two thousand jobs per week have been lost in the course of the past year. The Taoiseach's business as usual response, that FÁS courses will be provided and that he is continuing with the economic policies of the Government is the most frightening thing of all. Continuing the economic policies of the Government that has landed us with 100,000 extra people unemployed during the past year is the problem. The only thing the budget did for people who are unemployed was to make it harder for them to get jobseeker's benefit.

The Government has abandoned people who are losing their jobs and has turned its back on the unemployed. People who are losing their jobs in the Irish economy today do not want the dole. They want work. They do not want to be on a FÁS course, they want to be in a job. My question to the Taoiseach was not about FÁS courses, nor was it about the kind of generalised statement and response he has given, I asked him specifically what initiatives he is taking to get people back to work. The concerns people who are losing their jobs have are about when they will be back at work. They want work. People who are in employment want some sense that they are not going to lose their jobs. They are not getting that reassurance from the Government.

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