Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

It is 30 years since Pope John Paul said in Drogheda, "Young people of Ireland, I love you." I would like to parody that for this Government and say, "Young people of Ireland, we have no interest in you." That is the message going out to young people. No coherent or focused strategy has been put in place to tackle youth unemployment. The only thing the Minister for Finance did in the budget was reduce their social welfare payment. Let us not fool ourselves with answers that are designed to conceal rather than reveal.

Are we going to nurture and encourage those young Celtic cubs, who are educated, innovative and well skilled? They are crucial to recovery, so what are we going to do for them? They feel as if the Government has deserted them as a group. Is the Minister of State satisfied that we will lose a generation of people? Are we happy to go back to losing young, skilled, innovative and motivated people? The budget was a real "downer" to them, because it offered little or no hope.

In a recent study carried out by a youth organisation on young people, 60% of those surveyed indicated that they expected to be unemployed after completing their education. There has been a 150% explosion in youth unemployment in the past two and a half years. It is having a negative impact on young people. Where are we going? What about the work placement programme? There are 1,000 places, with 250 geared for people under 35 years. Does the Minister of State agree this is a pathetic response to a problem that will not go away? It will get more serious unless we tackle this in a coherent way, with a strategy to deal with youth unemployment.

See this speech in context