Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his answer. He stated that the action plan for jobs was a series of broad measures without specific targets, but the difficulty lies in the fact that he and his colleagues in government made a commitment in the programme for Government to create 100,000 new jobs by 2016. The live register figures are not moving. The 400,000 or so people who are on the live register are looking to the action plan to see whether it contains some sort of pathway for them.

I gather that the 2013 edition is being launched tomorrow. There will be great fanfare and great talk, but what specific provisions can be shown to the person on the live register who wants to work to give him or her hope? Tomorrow's launch and fanfare will clash with the medium-term fiscal strategy, which seems to take a more sober assessment of net job creation in 2013. Is the Government's target still 100,000 net jobs created by 2016?

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