Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The latest quarterly national household survey published by the Central Statistics Office in March shows that in the final quarter of 2011 there were 142,500 people under the age of 25 in employment. This compares to 157,000 in that age cohort who were in employment at the end of 2010. The quarterly national household survey also shows that in the final quarter of 2011, 59,700 people under 25 years of age were unemployed compared to 63,500 at the end of 2010.

There are two major elements to the Government's response to tackling unemployment in general. These are the action plan for jobs and Pathways to Work. The goal of the action plan for jobs is to support the creation of 100,000 net new jobs in the economy by 2016, while the aim of Pathways to Work is to help ensure as many of those jobs as possible are filled by people on the live register. Under Pathways to Work, the Department of Social Protection is committed to supporting more than 85,000 beneficiaries in job placement, work experience and back to education schemes in 2012. The Department of Education and Skills will also provide more than 457,000 training and education places including provision for early school leavers.

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