Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----with 33,800 people in employment in the past year and 9,600 in the past quarter. These people are now in employment. There has been an increase of 20,000 in the number of people in full-time employment in the past 12 months. The IDA figures show a net increase of 12,500 in employment in its supported companies in 2011 and 2012. Enterprise Ireland had a record year in 2012, with a net increase of 3,000 employed in supported companies last year. It is important to note that exports have hit their highest level of €182 billion, which is 16% above the level in the crisis year. Jobs in the exporting sector have increased by 15,000 over the past two years. I note also the announcements by Kerry Group, Glanbia, Mylan and PayPal, for example. Recent figures show encouraging movement in the unemployment figures, particularly with regard to long-term unemployment. The level of unemployment has dropped from a peak of 15.1% to 13.5%. The long-term unemployment rate has fallen from 9.5% to 8.2%. It is heading in the right direction but it is still much too high and a great deal of work remains to be done in this regard. These are real people who have left long-term unemployment, who have come off the live register and are now back in gainful employment. That is where we want to be.

I made the point the other day that there is the difficulty of the welfare trap, whereby a person moving from unemployment into the world of work automatically or instantly loses benefits. This system needs to be changed to allow for a tapering effect in order to encourage and incentivise people to get back to work. I refer to the example of the new housing assistance programme, which will allow for a tapering-off period while people come off the live register and go into the world of work. There has been progress, but it is nothing like what we have to achieve. The budget for 2014, in so far as we can do it, will focus on providing opportunities for further expansion in employment and jobs. This is the key to future prosperity for our people.

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