Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Again, I acknowledge the points made. The Deputy must also acknowledge the deep structural changes that gave rise to this unemployment crisis which, as stated by the Minister, Deputy Bruton, in a reply to an earlier question, was our dependence on construction, in which sector many of the skills were employed. A sudden downturn which results in one having to make a correction of the order of €38 plus billion over a five or six year period requires one to find new ways to create labour market activation measures. We believe we are succeeding. For instance, many jobs have been created through the JobBridge scheme.

I heartily acknowledge that there is a crisis in the area of youth unemployment.

There is also an emigration crisis but we are trying to restructure the education programme between post primary and tertiary education in a way that ensures all of the eggs do not go into the construction-related activity basket. We are staging up investment in science, technology, engineering and maths to create the skillsets for the new types of companies being spun out of campuses such as in the Nimbus Centre at Cork Institute of Technology. This week I attended the Irish Technology Leadership Group event in Cork, and quite a number of campus companies are being created by people in the age bracket we are discussing. A genuine attempt is being made to create. I also believe the Irish Presidency is striving to ensure the concept of the youth guarantee is embedded into political thinking on a pan-European basis so it is seen as a European crisis and not only an Irish crisis.

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