Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State quoted from some of the tables with which he will supply us later, namely, the quarterly national household figures. I presume the Minister referred to the last published figures from February which relate to last year.

I understand 26,900 net new jobs were created last year. When one examines the figures and the details, as others have, such as Deputy Coppinger who mentioned them earlier, one can see that the Government's recent commitment to deliver full employment by 2018 would be quite difficult. The difference between those who were made unemployed and the jobs that were created was 26,900. The Government said it needed to create full employment by 2018. To do that it would need to double that figure each year between now and 2018. That goal has eluded the Government for four years, as have other goals mentioned by Deputies. I do not see any strategy which is capable of doubling the delivery of net jobs to the State each year for the next four years. Some 50,000 net jobs per year would need to be created to achieve the Government's goal. It is also my goal, but it has been set by the Government which wants to deliver it by 2018.

We do not have the tables to which the Minister of State referred. Therefore, we do not know whether the CSO reflects the fact that for every new job created, five people have migrated from our shores to America, Australia and elsewhere. I do not know whether the table on emigration supplied by the CSO is among the tables the Minister of State has put together and said he will circulate.

Does he accept the figures show that the number of people in employment in the west had fallen by 4,800 and in the south west by 5,000 up to December 2014? The numbers in employment in the Border region, as Deputy Coppinger mentioned, have fallen by 1,300 since the Government took office.

That suggests that whenever the Government issues these tables, the figures for those who have emigrated should also be attached.

There was no increase in employment in the Border area, despite Enterprise Ireland and the IDA saying that 2014 was a successful year. For those living in rural Ireland it does not seem to have been successful. I have cited three different regions - the west, the south west and the Border region - as having fewer people employed than when the Government took office.

Unlike the Government, the IDA has failed to meet its targets on regional job creation. This is in part due to a lack of investment in infrastructure and a lack of political will. The Minister of State is obviously not responsible for that. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation can come before the House and respond on the IDA and Enterprise Ireland as well as the local enterprise offices, which are not properly funded or resourced. Unless the Minister, Deputy Bruton, remedies that, the CSO figures for which the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, is responsible will show a further decline in employment.

This situation is not captured in the figures that have been presented to date. How many of those jobs are part time or low paid? That is a key factor in terms of the jobs being created in future. We have seen a further decline in 2014 in the number of young people aged between 20 and 34 in the labour force. That might be a reflection of the nearly 90,000 the Minister of State has said are in job activation.

There needs to be a greater focus on city and town marketing plans that provide e-commerce platforms for local businesses, although, again, this is not the Minister of State's responsibility. He needs to be saying that these CSO figures are reflecting unemployment, under-employment and employment decline not only in rural Ireland but also in towns and cities. The Minister of State can reflect that at the Cabinet table.

Does the Minister of State accept that the Labour Party and Fine Gael continued to fail Ireland's missing generation, with 60,000 fewer 20 to 34 year-olds in employment since they took office? That is a huge figure which I talked about earlier in respect of emigration. The number of new graduates leaving is even higher. It would be interesting to see if the CSO figures are reflecting the number of graduates in employment. We are training up a whole new generation of graduates, yet the State is not likely to see the benefit of its investment in their education. Other countries such as Australia, England, America and maybe even countries in Europe will see the benefit of that investment instead. The most recent data from the Higher Education Authority tells us that the number of Irish graduates working abroad has increased, and that 12% of the 2013 graduates were working overseas compared to 5% in 2008. Although I doubt it, those statistics may be contained in the CSO figures that are going to be released later.

Does the Minister of State accept that unemployment has fallen? We accept that. However, the number of those in jobs activation, which other Deputies have mentioned, has not been added to that figure of roughly 89,400 that the Minister of State mentioned himself. People in jobs activation schemes are classified as employed. We would have a different and substantially higher unemployment rate if those numbers were added together along with the under-employed, those in part-time work who would like to be full-time employed and those on temporary contracts who would like to be on full-time contracts. This opens up the Government to the accusation that the figures are massaged. That is a charge the Minister of State needs to answer in respect of the way the CSO figures are contained. We will go onto another question afterwards about crime figures; there is a controversy around how the question is put and the statistics gathered. It is the same in this case?

In other countries, those on job activation schemes are recorded as unemployed. Those not in full-time employment are also accounted for so that there is a real unemployment figure rather than a fake one. Many job activation schemes have not led to jobs or full-time employment, as has been discussed in this House. There is a major question about how to use statistics and whether the statistics reflect reality.

The number of those in part-time work continues to increase and is now 13% higher than in 2007. People who are unemployed would be happy with whatever work they can get, yet the Minister of State should accept there is a danger that the statistics will be reflecting an increase in part-time work. Although increased employment is welcome, we need to look at the quality of those jobs. The figures I have seen to date do not indicate whether the increases are in high-end jobs, whether the new jobs pay or make work pay. Nor do they indicate how many of those in full-time employment are in fact also in receipt of the likes of family income supplement, FIS. It is necessary to ensure that it is worth people's while to present for full-time work or at least for the minimum 19 hours that would qualify for FIS. There are people who want full-time work and those who are happy with 19 hours. That is for them to decide.

When are the next quarterly national household figures due? Has the Minister of State any indication as to whether they will be substantially different from the ones presented to the public in February this year? What is he going to do? What are the changes in terms of the west, the Border and the south west in particular? They were the main focus of the downturn in employment numbers.

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