Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his kind remarks. I intend to make as good a go of this as I can, and while some people may wish to characterise the Deputy in a particular way, I know he has a more open mind and I hope he will give me a chance to do some of the things I believe both of us would like to do, because nobody wants to see poverty or deprivation in our society, and he can be sure that there is plenty of it in my constituency in West Dublin. I am very aware of it.

Not everything that happened in the past five years is a reason to be proud, but unemployment has almost halved, from 15% to under 8% now. More jobs are becoming available. We need to make sure that those who do not have work are able to get into those jobs. We need to make sure that those jobs pay by increasing the minimum wage, as we will again, abolishing the universal social charge for those on low pay, which we have started already, and extending to people the kind of benefits that may assist them in staying in work, such as health benefits and dealing with the cost of child care. These issues are major disincentives to work. There are a small number of people who perhaps do not want to be in work, and a different approach is required in that sense.

See this speech in context