Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. The difficulty is that we are fighting a major fire with a water pistol. I welcome all of the worthy initiatives referred to the Minister of State. I would also welcome if the Minister of State could - I accept he might have this information with him now - update me on the microfinance fund, the pricing of which we are receiving some negative feed on. I would like to know what the uptake is on it.

The Minister and his Ministers of State could use the opportunity of the Presidency to address this European-wide problem. Surely the entire resources of Europe could be used to ensure a consistent Europe-wide effort in addressing unemployment among those aged under 25 years. Our only direct solution appears to be dependence on emigration. That is what is happening.

The Minister of State referred to activation places. An analysis of the CSO figures for December indicates just over 5,000 additional activation places were created in 2012. There will be only 2,000 additional CE places this year. CE schemes provide people with a wonderful opportunity to obtain a skill and gain experience. The Minister of State also referred to gaming. Despite that this Government and the previous Government invested a great deal of resources in the gaming sector, I met a graduate this week who, having obtained a degree in that area, cannot get a job because he does not have work experience. Despite the introduction of all of these initiatives our long term unemployment situation worsened during 2012 and our youth unemployment situation has fallen, but only because of emigration.

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