Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is not just older citizens who were targeted in the budget announced yesterday. Young people also took a significant hit and received a clear message from the Government. Since the Taoiseach took office in 2011, some 18,000 fewer young people are working in the economy. Approximately 1,700 people emigrate from the State every week - a shocking statistic - the majority of whom are young and educated who are leaving because they have no prospect of finding decent work here. These young people under 25 years, their mothers, fathers and grandparents and people throughout the State watched yesterday hoping against hope the Government would provide something that would mean they would not be forced to join the lengthening emigration trail at our airports. What did the Government do? It announced a range of brutal measures aimed specifically at the youth of the State, none more startling than the slashing of the jobseeker's allowance for those under 25 years. It has clearly decided that the youth of Ireland will carry the can for the mistakes of the Government and the previous one. Having failed to create an environment in which young people can flourish, the Government now wants rid of them. Emigration is now the official employment policy for young people. A cut of up to one third in the jobseeker's allowance for people under 25 years sends an unmistakable message to young people that the Government regards them as a burden rather than as the future of the country. I question the legality of such a brazen discriminatory measure, but I presume the Government has received legal advice as to its legality. Will the Taoiseach clarify this? Above all, will he come clean and speak out on what is obvious to us all, young people, their families and communities, that just like Fianna Fáil did previously, the Government has chosen a policy of forced emigration for young people?

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