Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has raised a number of issues. Glimpses of reasonableness come out here and there in what he said about what the Government is doing. He is acknowledging fairly that the Government is bringing forward policies in the area of apprenticeships. These are substantive and, ultimately will be, successful policies on apprenticeships. There was an increase of over 40% in apprenticeships last year and new apprenticeships across the board. I was happy to be associated with the announcement by eircom of 300 new apprentices in that organisation. There will be others in the coming weeks and I hope the Deputy will welcome them.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh talks about real jobs and I remind the House that 330,000 people lost their jobs under the previous Administration. It was the greatest economic catastrophe the Government has ever seen. There was a collapse in employment, in the banking system, in economic activity and in living standards. That is what the Government faced and has been addressing very successfully. Deputy Ó Snodaigh asks about real jobs. Some 80,000 real new jobs have been created since 2011. Deputy Ó Snodaigh is correct to concentrate on unemployment. What have we done? We reduced it from 15% in 2012 to 10.5% in February of this year. By any reasonable person's standard and by any objective standard, it is a remarkable achievement and no Deputy, irrespective of what side he is on can possibly deny it.

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