Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Many of the people in the figures are not Irish nationals. They may be Polish or Lithuanian people who came to Ireland, worked here for ten years, put down roots, raised families and then find themselves unable to get a job. We are entitled to use those figures to reflect the economic situation. These people should not be left out of the economic figures when trying to get an understanding of the health of the economy. The net figures show a major outflow of people from the State due to the economic situation. The point we make is that we can create as many programmes as we like but the question of whether the Government tackles three issues - collapsed demand, infrastructural gaps that need investment and the major costs and inefficiencies in doing business in the State vis-à-vis our competitors - will determine whether we get back on our feet with regard to the creation of jobs. We need over 2% growth in the State to create jobs. The economy will create jobs, not a proliferation of jobs action plans, etc.

Perhaps the Minister of State forgot to reply on the last occasion on my question of when the youth guarantee will be in place and whether the Government will include as part of it the guarantee of a job.

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