Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I move:

"That Dáil Éireann:

- notes that the Standardised Unemployment Rate (SUR) has risen to 12.7% which is the second highest in the EU;

- notes that there are 434,700 people on the live register, the highest figure ever;

- notes that there are 85,910 people under the age of 25 on the live register;

- notes that unemployment is higher now than when the Government came to power in 1997;

- recognises that unemployment has social as well as economic consequences;

- regrets the reality that tens of thousands of young people have to emigrate once more; and

calls on the Government to:

- put job creation and job retention at the centre of its economic strategy;

- reduce the level of employer's PRSI;

- establish a national internship programme to provide part-time placements in the public, private and voluntary sectors for unemployed graduates with funding for a higher degree or diploma;

- provide 10,000 second-chance education places for former construction and other workers with no basic qualifications;

- mandate the Office of Public Works, FÁS and local authorities to take on all redundant apprentices to ensure that they can complete their training;

- provide 5,000 more Community Employment schemes;

- introduce workshare to subsidise the incomes of employees put on short-time and to provide them with training when they are not working as an alternative to redundancy; and

- introduce a major stimulus to the economy by implementing Fine Gael's 'New Era' proposals."

With permission of the House, I wish to share time with Deputies Deasy, Connaughton, Breen, Joe Carey, Feighan, Tom Sheahan and Doyle.

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