Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for his reply. I heard the Minister talk about the past but we are in the present now and he is a member of a Government which has been given an overwhelming majority by the people as a result of putting forward a policy, the centrepiece of which was to create jobs. The average rate of unemployment in the past 12 months during which the Government has been in office is 14.2%, as opposed to 13.7% the year before and 11.8% the year before that. There are now more than 443,000 people officially unemployed, with more than half of them being unemployed for more than a year. That is approximately the same figure as at the start of the year. According to the best estimate, at least 77,000 people have emigrated during the past 12 months. I presume most of them were not just going off to see the rest of the world but left to seek work. That amounts to 200 people emigrating per day and there are 443,000 on the live register. In view of those figures, does the Minister consider his jobs initiative introduced last May was a success?

The Minister is about to announce a new jobs initiative. It is a case of another year, another jobs initiative. What new ideas does he propose to put forward in that next initiative that will succeed where the last one obviously failed?

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