Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Tóibín is picking facts selectively. Some 20,000 more people are at work today than there were 12 months ago and there are many employment programmes designed to help young people get such jobs. JobBridge has been very successful and has dealt with 17,000 young people, resulting in a 60% employment take-up from the programme. Springboard has also been exceptionally successful, with 6,500 people retrained and another 6,500 being retrained this year. These 13,000 people have been very successful at accessing employment opportunities in expanding companies.

The programmes that have been put in place by the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, and the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, are having an impact and are helping young people. That is why we are seeing a reduction in the rate of unemployment among young people. We are not at a point where we are complacent about the situation, but we are at a place where we see the interventions we are putting in place are working. We also have an economy that is globally creating more employment. We must continue to work on this approach. We are on a path that is showing results and we need to strengthen that.

Last week we introduce JobsPlus, a new initiative designed to help new opportunities to be opened up for people, particularly young people, and to help them progress from community employment programmes and others into real employment opportunities.

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