Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

The Minister's response, and his performance regarding this issue, is not good enough. This scheme was announced in the budget in December and here we are, five months into the year, and not a single job has been provided under this scheme. Over a week ago I asked the Minister's Department for details of this scheme, what had been done to promote it and how it would operate and it has still to come back to me with any response on that. Can the Minister tell us the reason this scheme was announced in December and five months have already been lost in regard to setting it up? We have more than 430,000 people on the live register. It would seem the Government has been so obsessed with the whole issue regarding the banks it has taken its eye off the ball in terms of job protection and job creation. Why is it that nothing has happened in the past five months regarding this scheme?

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