Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Employment rose by 3.3% but average weekly earnings are down by 0.6%. The income tax figures for the first two months of the year are flat compared with the same period in 2013. If we have the kind of employment growth the Minister is trumpeting constantly, there should be a similar growth in income tax receipts. This shows the jobs being created are paying less and that is still driving many people out of the country.

Almost half the additional jobs are self-employed. I welcome that people are taking that step but we will not be able to make a call on their long-term sustainability for a number of years in terms of income and job creation potential.

In the past three years 105,000 people left the country. We have a higher rate of emigration in this country than in the EU 15. That seems to be the response to this cohort. We need a specific, targeted initiative involving entrepreneurship but also involving employment creation because not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur. There must be a form of employment creation programme focused on this generation - the golden generation - that will lead the recovery if young people are given the chance to stay.

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