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

If the Deputy is going to quote me, he may wish to quote me in full. Our attitude is very different. The Deputy is interested in welfare rates for young people. I am interested in getting young people into work. Youth unemployment has fallen by 23% in the past year; it has decreased from over 20% to 15.9%, which means that youth unemployment is falling substantially faster than general unemployment. That must be happening for a reason. It is not necessarily because of the rates being lowered but is, rather, a reflection of our policies - as a suite of measures - being successful.

The OECD report is inaccurate. First, it refers to figures from 2014.

This is not 2014; it is nearly the end of 2016. A lot has happened in the Irish economy in the past two years. It also uses data from the survey on income and living conditions, SILC, rather than from the actual unemployment data. If one looks at the unemployment data, youth unemployment in Ireland is now below the OECD average.

See this speech in context