Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Interesting points have been made by Deputies during the debate but to listen to some people, one would think there was not a job left in the country. We are conscious of the numbers on the live register - 413,000 - but 115,000 of those are being supported while in employment. Sometimes we ignore that fact. They are on the live register but they are working part-time or are casual workers. They are not permanently unemployed and it is important that the social welfare system should be able to support people who are in that situation.

Every school holiday a few thousand people join the register even though they have regular employment while the schools are in operation. They end up on the register for a week or a month. In many ways they are not actively seeking work because they have a job to go back to after the holidays. I am talking about lollipop ladies and people like that. There is no problem about paying them but it is not true to say they are out of work.

There are 1.9 million people working in this country and we should not forget that. There are opportunities every day for people to get work. Our exports went up this year when those in every other country in Europe went down. We are meeting the needs of a particular market because we have well educated young people and an economic base that will attract industry.

A Deputy said the good times did nothing for young people but they did a substantial amount for them. Even in the current difficulties, in spite of some people finding it more difficult, there are still great opportunities for young people. I hope they are not depressed listening to some of the comments being made about them here.

What is being done in this budget to support them? A total of €6.5 billion is being spent on an infrastructure capital development which proportionately is the highest in Europe. This will be expended on school buildings and on infrastructure and it will keep 60,000 to 70,000 people involved in the construction industry which is a very important part of the economy. This measure is in this budget and it is a jobs stimulus.

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