Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The problem is that the Taoiseach recites all of these figures, statistics and so on but I cannot see any sign of an appropriate and focused investment by the Government in job creation. There is no ongoing effort to try to provide a better context for small businesses. The problems small businesses have are too high rates, too high rents and the fact they cannot get credit. These people would employ another person - a neighbour, a family member or someone from their community - if they were assisted in doing so. Let us look at the jobs figure because the Taoiseach misses something all the time.

I am increasingly intrigued about the effect of emigration on us as an island people. It is causing significant societal damage to communities. The Taoiseach recites figures, but I can remind him that an average of 1,700 citizens emigrate every week. I can also remind him of recent unemployment figures. The major job losses took place in 2008 and 2009. By 2010, the rate of unemployment was 13.8%. When the Taoiseach came into government, the percentage of people on the live register was 13.5%. After two and a half years of austerity policies, the figure is now 13.4%. Tá sé mar a bhí sé. It is still the same. That does not take account of the emigration of almost 300,000 people. Teachtaí Dála from Sinn Féin and all other parties welcome any job announcement or any fall in unemployment. Exports have recovered and that is also to be welcomed. The problem is that the jobs lost in the domestic economy have not returned. The Government should focus on this instead of punishing young people.

I have listened to what has been said by the Minister for stating the obvious, Deputy Burton, about young people being better off in work than on the dole. Was some consultant paid a fat fee to figure that out? Of course everybody would be better off at work than on the dole. Where are the jobs? That is the problem. The issue of demonisation arises in this context. When I represented west Belfast, the mantra was that the people of west Belfast did not own alarm clocks because they did not need them. We put together our own jobs recovery programme - the Obair report - and we undertook an audit of the skills in the community. The people there had faced decades of discrimination and generational unemployment because they were quite rightly perceived to be disloyal to the state. This type of demonisation is the subtext of our dealings with young people nowadays. It is almost as if we consider unemployment to be a lifestyle choice, or we think people are doing well on the dole. We heard last week about flat screen plasma televisions. We have heard about the Government's plans to incentivise these young people to go to work. They need to be given jobs.

The precise proof of this Government's stewardship of many of these matters is the depth, the focus and the amount of real investment in jobs. Opportunities should be pursued on the basis of our strengths. We proposed a fair budget and produced a jobs document. The Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, might be interested to learn that Labour Youth has advocated an increase in the bank levy to end the withdrawal of medical cards, the reductions in the benefits paid to young unemployed people, the cuts in youth services and the discontinuing of the telephone allowance. The idea proposed by Labour Youth makes it clear that there are choices that can be made. When we raise matters of this importance, only to be numbed by mumbled statistics being thrown at us, it is hard for us to respond in a passionate manner. The policies that are required to get people back to work have not been developed under the Taoiseach's watch. This Government is embracing emigration as a policy choice, just as successive Governments have done. That is why earlier today I called on the Taoiseach to resign. We need a change of Government. We need a Government that keeps the promises it makes at election time, faces the elites, the wealthy and those who scundered us, so to speak, and put us into this situation, and works on the genius, intelligence, wit and potential of our people. We are recycling Governments here. We will be recycling these issues until there is a seismic change in how we do our business. This Government will not do that, unfortunately.

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