Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

We spent all day yesterday on a motion proposed by the Taoiseach that he should keep his job and that his Ministers should keep theirs. This morning I want to ask him about the concerns of people who have already lost their jobs and people who are concerned about losing their jobs. Earlier this month, the live register figures were published and they tell us that for the 12th successive month the number of people on the live register is more than 400,000, with the most recent figure at 438,000. Another set of figures was published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office, which tell us more about the bad situation in the country with job losses and unemployment. A total of 41% of those now out of work are classified as long-term unemployed; in other words, they have been out of work for more than 12 months. The figures published yesterday tell us that 33% of young men in the workforce aged between 20 and 24 are out of work; one in three young men is on the dole. The CSO tells us that the number of people in employment fell by 108,000 in the past 12 months and the rate of unemployment in Ireland is now 3.1% higher than the EU average.

Given all of this information, why is unemployment such a low priority for the Government? What can the Taoiseach say to the people who are out of work about when they are likely to get a job again? What specific steps are being taken by the Government to get people back to work?

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