Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is welcome that tackling youth unemployment is a priority and that a figure of €3 billion has been allocated to it. The problem is that when one does the sums, it will not have a significant impact on unemployment levels and the 26 million who are unemployed. It works out as €142 per unemployed person per year, which is not sufficient.

There is an allocation of €150 million for the PEACE Programme over the seven year period. Do we have any idea how many programmes and organisations are relying on this programme for funding?

Funding in the area of connectivity has been slashed. This is where the savings will be made. Do we have any idea how this will impact on programmes in Ireland? Have we made a case for relevant programmes?

The horsemeat controversy has been mentioned. It seems strange that this was not one of the issues addressed, especially with regard to the need for proper traceability, labelling and so on. I would have thought there would have been a public relations campaign to encourage people to eat burgers to send the message that food was safe to eat. It is emerging clearly that there are difficulties and it appears criminal elements are involved.

The Council is sending the wrong message on the issue of youth unemployment. There is no sense from the negotiations that we are on the side of increasing funding. The Strasbourg-Brussels charade continues. Was this issue discussed? Was it ever going to be a runner in the discussions? I have referred to the fact that some €1.5 billion is to be saved over a seven year period. We are discussing cuts to be made, but what is being done in this area does not add up.

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