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

They are nothing of the sort; they want work. Where are the jobs for them? Where are the jobs for our young people? The disgrace in all of this is that the Government would have the brazen hard neck to lay at the feet of our young people its failure to provide opportunities. The half-baked Mickey Mouse schemes the Government comes up with to massage the live register figures will not cut it. People want real jobs and decent work.

The only thing the budget achieved yesterday was to take €32 million out of the pockets of people under 25 on jobseeker's payments who want work but cannot find it. The Government did not stop at this. It has cut funding to third level education and whacked up the registration fee again. It has taken money from young people on FÁS courses. It has hit apprentices as it insists they must pay a registration fee. The Taoiseach should spare me, please, the waffle and baloney about his concern for our young people. The Government has made it clear to our young people that it is time to pack their bags and leave, because the Government has failed them and will fail them and sees them as a burden. If I am wrong-----

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