David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

Am I right in saying that the number of people availing of short-term enterprise allowance is greatly below expectations? Does the Minister agree with the CSO that 60% of unemployed people are at serious risk of long-term unemployment? At a time when so many people are at risk of long-term unemployment, why did she scrap a scheme which focused on the long-term unemployed? Some 12.7% of the population is unemployed. That figure was 15.7% when the scheme was introduced in 1993. Does the Minister intend to wait until the unemployment rate reaches 15.7% again before she introduces a meaningful scheme to give hope to the long-term unemployed?

See this speech in context