Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Micheál Martin. On the first issue raised, there was a report on zero-hours contracts and there is also the report I have mentioned in regard to Clerys. They will obviously be considered by the Minister in regard to the issue the Deputy raised.

I accept the point the Deputy made on casualisation but we have to put it into the context of the growth in the number of full-time jobs and of Ireland being the fastest growing economy in Europe, with GDP growth of 7.8% in 2015. That is the background. We saw 1,000 jobs being created every week in 2015 and 135,000 jobs were created since the Action Plan for Jobs was launched in 2012. There was a very welcome drop in unemployment, down to 8.4% from the peak of 15.2%.

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