Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The figures are available, about which there is no doubt.

We have sought to have a specific provision made in the European Union budget to do two things to address the issue of youth unemployment. First, during the course of our Presidency of the European Union we will seek to make tackling youth unemployment a priority. One of the issues being advanced through the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council is a youth guarantee. There are proposals from the European Commission on the issue of youth unemployment that we are keen to see progressed, but we wish to see them backed up by a budgetary provision. It is welcome that agreement was secured on a budget provision of €6 billion in the lifetime of the budget.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has convened a meeting today to consider the horsemeat issue which is now very much a European issue. We should acknowledge that the testing and food safety system in this country has worked and that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has made this a European issue for discussion at the meeting he has convened for today.

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