Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I very much empathise with Deputy Smith's wishes to have these programmes continue and be supplemented by other provisions within the programme for Government. In addition to the provisions I have just outlined we have also committed to creating an additional 60,000 places across a range of education and employment programmes for the unemployed. The programme for Government also states that within the first 100 days of taking office the Government will create a jobs fund which will be used to resource a number of initiatives aimed at stimulating economic growth and employment creation.

Deputy Smith is right in pointing out that this is a serious challenge facing our country. The most recent employment statistics provided by the Central Statistics Office indicate that long-term unemployment accounts for almost 52% of total unemployment compared with just 33% a year earlier. My fear is that the longer one remains unemployed, the more unemployable one becomes. The emphasis in my Department, therefore, will be on providing them with every opportunity we can resource to allow them re-enter the workforce and access the training and upskilling they will require to do that.

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