Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach said that the 6% would be achieved by 2018.

Why is it that in other economies, such as Germany, 4.5% is regarded as full employment whereas we are going for the higher rate?

The Minister has not outlined the reason for the change or why the targets are being pushed back. The Department of Finance indicated in October that we would not achieve a 6.4% rate in 2020 or a 6.2% rate in 2021. The Minister can talk about action plans for jobs and targets and everything the OECD says but this represents a serious shift in the goalposts.

It is true that emigration happened. The amount of emigration that happened is equivalent to another 6% on top of the unemployment rate. Even bringing those people back and giving them the opportunity to come back into employment does not account for the shift in the goalposts that has occurred.

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