Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Aideen Carberry, the national chairperson of Labour Youth, stated that it was fundamentally unfair and that it was the opinion of Labour Youth that the measure would cause people to emigrate. She stated they had watched with a combination of sadness and concern and that the problem with the unemployment crisis in the country was not training but the fact that there are not enough jobs.

Most of our young unemployed are graduates. They are highly educated and take low-paid work to make ends meet. This cut displays a complete misunderstanding of the unemployment challenge faced by our youth and is not just bad economics but also discriminatory. This is an issue of human rights. None of us would, I hope, come in here to state we will cut basic social protections to non-whites, women or Muslims, but this is exactly what the Government has done; it has targeted a group of people based on age.

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