Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I intend raising the issue of the Diocese of Raphoe on the Order of Business.

I have a question regarding the unemployment figures published yesterday. The Tánaiste said on 6 October 2011, "There has been a significant reduction in unemployment. The jobs initiative is working, both in respect of reducing the number of people who are unemployed and creating jobs." Does he accept that yesterday's figures show a year on year increase of 4,500 people on the live register and that his policies are not working? A closer inspection of the figures shows an increase of 9,500 people over 25 years of age and a decrease in those under 25 years of age of nearly 5,000 which is explained by the extraordinary migration of young people in recent months which everybody in the country knows about. This means the real rate of the rise in unemployment far exceeds the headline figure we were given yesterday.

The Government has been in power for nine months. The Tánaiste talks about unemployment and he talked about a jobs budget and all we got was a paltry jobs initiative that was really just an excuse for a raid on pension funds of pensioners to fund and bolster the coffers of the Government.

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