Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I am raising the issue in an attempt to be constructive because the 30% youth unemployment figure is alarming. We can take it for granted those young people will come from socially disadvantaged areas, not exclusively so but particularly so, and the social divide I mentioned earlier will widen and deepen.

The Taoiseach cited the jobs action plan but that plan is 126 pages long.

Tá mé ag caint leis an Taoiseach. Leo, any chance?

The plan mentions young people twice in 126 pages. The Taoiseach recited some of the detail from the last European summit but there is only €10 billion in new money, the rest is money that already exists in structural funds and so on. It is reckoned we will get €1.25 billion of that for this State.

I keep coming back to this, and I know the Taoiseach dismisses what I say in this regard, but the Government has given €20 billion to the banks in the same period; that is the rub. The sum total of the spend of all the enterprise agencies in this State amounts to €450 million, compared to €20 billion going into banks, while one third of our young people are unemployed with no prospects. This will come back to haunt us. Will the Taoiseach not consider putting forward a specific stimulus package for youth jobs and if he does, when will he bring it forward?

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