Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Signing on at 18 years of age is not the best for a young person. In Northern Ireland Sinn Féin, in power, has done nothing to tackle the equivalent youth unemployment rate there which is almost one third higher when compared relatively. We are going to spend €46 million on additional measures for young people. We will spend significantly more on training them, JobsPlus and other programmes than what will be saved on the measures in question.

See this speech in context