Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not accept the thesis the Deputy has put forward that people who set up their own businesses are in some way inferior in terms of job creation. We want to encourage entrepreneurship. It is a welcome indication that there is a high level of start-up and people setting up as self employed. High levels of company formation are clearly also evident in the figures.

I fully admit that migration is far too high. The net migration of 35,000 last year is too high. It has been at that level for a number of years. The only sustainable response to migration is employment creation. The Deputy must acknowledge, despite his perusing of income tax figures to try find something negative, the truth that in the private sector we created 66,500 jobs in the past 12 months. That is a really significant achievement by enterprise in Ireland. We need to build on that but we also need to ensure young people get a fair crack of the whip because inevitably the doors were closed to younger people and that is why JobBridge, Jobs Plus and other such schemes are aimed at trying to reskill and get people, in particular in those younger age groups, into opportunities.

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