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

Yesterday at committee I mentioned to the Minister that the issue of jobs was a central platform of the Government when it stood for election in 2011. On every occasion Fine Gael has gone to the country in the past five or six years, be it for an election or referendum, the issue of jobs has been central. However, we are still struggling to deal with the issue of the creation of jobs. The quarterly national household survey states clearly that since the Government has come to power, there has been a reduction of 24,000 young people in the workforce. This net reduction is a very stark figure. There is a net reduction of 35,000 young people in the labour force since the Government has come to power.

These figures reflect the migration patterns here, where one third of the 87,000 people who left our shores because of the lack of jobs in the State were people under the age of 25. Some 30% of the population in this age bracket in this State is unemployed, the fifth highest level in the eurozone. Every time we speak about this, the Minister speaks of an ecosytem of projects and plans that are being put into place, yet he is failing miserably on the the key measure, the creation of jobs. This is a policy choice of the Government. Now that the Government is half way through its term should it not face up to the lack of growth in jobs and change its policy?

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