Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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1. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Economic Recovery and Jobs last met. [39089/13]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Taoiseach the number of times the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Economic Recovery and Jobs has met since the beginning of the year. [40732/13]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Recovery and Jobs has met seven times this year, most recently yesterday. A sub-committee of this committee, dealing specifically with Pathways to Work, has met on seven occasions to date in 2013, once since the summer recess.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Did the Taoiseach say No. 1-----

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Go mo leisceal. I will read it again for the Deputy.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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No. I just want to know which questions he is answering.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I said I was taking Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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That is Deputy Micheál Martin and Deputy Gerry Adams.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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That is fine. Apologies. I was engaged-----

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy knows, rather than taking them all together we divide them up-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am happy with that. I just wanted to check. I was in discussion with Deputy Halligan and that is why-----

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Halligan is entitled to ask a question if he wishes.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. The question is on the Pathways to Work and young people in particular to which I hope to get further answers. In budget 2014 the Government stated that €14 million would be provided to roll out a youth guarantee scheme in the coming months. That is aimed at providing guaranteed access to work, training and education for any young person out of work for four months. I put it to the Taoiseach that is about €211 per person under the age of 25 currently on the live register. Does the Taoiseach have a starting date for when the youth guarantee will come into operation? Also, will he respond to the fact that live register figures show that during 2012, 41,000 people under the age of 25 were without work for four months or more but during that same timeframe, the figures show a total of only 18,000 training, education and work experience opportunities available for young welfare recipients?

In September 2013, 66,183 young people under the age of 25 were on the live register. How many training places will be provided for those young people? The Department of Social Protection has said it is too early to say how many opportunities will be available but it was likely to be significantly up on the 18,000 estimated for 2012. The National Youth Council of Ireland has estimated that approximately €273 million would be necessary to implement the youth guarantee model in Ireland along the lines of the successful Swedish model. The Minister, Deputy Burton, has pledged that the guarantee would direct young people into good quality work, training and educational opportunities for young people and that JobBridge, the national internship scheme, along with other welfare supports, would be drawn upon to facilitate that.

Will the Taoiseach accept that the fund as it is now is not adequate? A sum of €14 million euro will go nowhere near meeting the needs of over 66,000 young people under the age of 25 to get guaranteed access to employment, training or education. I refer to the change to the vocational training opportunities scheme, VTOS, in the current budget and the ongoing restrictions in the back to education scheme. For example, from next year if one wants to become a teacher the old H.Dip is going. One needs a Master's education degree now to get the vocational qualification that would qualify one to teach. That will not be covered under the back to education allowance. It is this mismatch in policy and the lack of joined-up thinking between different schemes that will further militate against the success of any guarantee scheme. If the figure is only €14 million it is will go nowhere near providing the opportunities for young people that are so desperately needed. I ask the Taoiseach to indicate in his reply if there will be an increase on that figure or is he satisfied that the requisite number of places will be made available?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy knows, the budget was based first, on Ireland being able to exit the bailout programme and, second, to provide opportunities for jobs. The Deputy understands that we have to be able to incentivise and motivate young people to a life beyond the dole or being on the unemployment register.

That is a challenge for Government and it is not one that is easy to deal with in a very short time. However, €14 million has been put into this system to address the challenge we now have to deal with in respect of young people being available for work and reforming the welfare system.

Deputy Martin will be aware that the number of jobless households, where nobody in the house works, increased from 10% to 15% between 2004 and 2007. That is about double the European average. Like myself, the Deputy will have been in houses like this, where nobody works. Before too long, nobody in the family works. That is very bad for the social dimension of who were are as Irish people in a nation which has always prided itself on its ability to work.

There is a range of changes here. Deputy Martin will be aware of the decision made at the European Council about the youth guarantee which will aim to provide adequate further training and education places for unemployed young people. That will kick in from January 2014 in areas where the level of youth unemployment is above the European average. Budget 2014, as the Deputy rightly pointed out, allocated an additional €14 million to increase the number of places for people, in particular for young people, including 1,500 places on the new JobsPlus scheme and it amends the criteria for eligibility for under 25s to only six months unemployment. There are 1,500 new JobBridge places for people under 25. Some people decried the JobBridge scheme which began with ideas of collaboration between the private sector and the Department of Social Protection. I know from talking to many of the young graduates who were unemployed and who got on the JobBridge scheme, that approximately 65%, or so I am told, are offered full-time employment out of that. Some 2,000 training places are being ring-fenced for under 25s who are out of work in 2014 at a cost of €6 million. Those places will be provided in the follow up to the very successful Momentum programme which operated in 2013.

Next year the Department of Social Protection will spend €1.08 billion on work, training and education places and on related supports for jobseekers. That is approximately an €85 million increase on the spend this year. The changes relating to jobseekers allowance for young people are being made in that context and that is to place a greater emphasis on work, training and education supports rather than on just income supports.

There has been a lot of ill-informed information about the JobBridge, or national internship scheme, but the facts speak for themselves. It started as a pilot programme, originally set at 5,000 places but it has now exceeded 20,000 places. As I said, 60% to 65% of participants receive full-time employment.

In response to Deputy Martin's specific issues, the Estimate for the total expenditure on take up of training, education and work experience opportunities by 18,000 young welfare recipients in 2012 was €170 million. Those figures do not include spending on a wide range of education and training opportunities which are taken up by young people who are not unemployed - for instance, apprenticeships, university or college places, post-leaving certificate courses and so on. Expenditure and the number of places in 2014 will be significantly up on those figures.

As I pointed out, an implementation group has been asked to produce the report for an Irish youth guarantee by the end of the year. That plan will be focused on helping 59,000 under 25s who are out of work. That figure has been reduced by 11,000 over the past 12 months. There are five main approaches to tackling youth unemployment, namely, education, training, job search assistance, work experience and encouraging job creation. That covers a range of Departments and agencies.

The Youthreach programme provides 6,000 integrated education, training and work experience for early school leavers without any qualifications or vocational training who are between 15 and 20 years of age. The vocational training opportunities scheme provides a range of courses to meet the education and training needs of another 5,500 who are unemployed and over the age of 21, but particularly focusing on school leavers. Almost 1,000 young people participated in that last year.

The Deputy will be aware of the back to education allowance scheme which is run by the Department of Social Protection and provides income maintenance for unemployed people returning to further or higher education. Some 6,500 participated in this in the last academic year. Some 12,000 people aged under 25 completed a training course with FÁS, whose name is soon to be changed, in 2012 and that excluded apprenticeships and evening course. The Momentum scheme, to which I referred, continues to support the provision of free education and training projects for 6,500 long-term jobseekers so that they can get skills and access work opportunities in areas identified as growing sectors. Some 1,250 of these places are assigned to people under the age of 25.

The JobBridge, or national internship scheme, is focused on providing work experience to young people with a total of 2,700 placements in 2012. Long-term unemployed youth will benefit from the JobsPlus initiative. Under that scheme, the State will pay €1 for every euro it costs the employer to recruit a person from the live register, which is another incentive.

In regard to the apprenticeship scheme, the allocation of apprenticeships is driven by employer demand. I listened to the chief executive of Aer Lingus speak at the Global Irish Economic Forum in Dublin recently. He made the point that in a European context, a major firm would employ not just 20 apprentices but perhaps up to 200 and that they would not be employed permanently by the major company but would go on to work in different spheres. We need to look at the capacity of Irish employers and firms to avail, to a far greater extent, of the opportunity to train, re-train and upskill young men and women in apprenticeship and so on.

The private sector is now creating 3,000 job per month. Budget 2014 allows for expansion there, including the retention of the 9% VAT rate. Some 15,000 jobs were created on top of the industry being stabilised by that. We hope next year will be a very good one.

There is a start-your-own-business scheme for young people who have been unemployed for 15 months or more offering them a two year income tax exemption. When I talk to young people and young people's groups, they ask if there is a chance for them to start their own businesses, whether manufacturing or whatever.

There is a range a of measures to support the construction sector. The home renovation incentive will prove very beneficial and when that is allied to the scheme available from the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, there will be real capacity. It can be done on an accumulated basis to claim back the tax credit. There has been an extension of the living city initiative to Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Dublin and Dún Laoghaire for all pre-1915 buildings which a lot of people are interested in renovating and doing up. Some €200 million has been allocated for new capital projects, including the Cork city event centre, heritage buildings, the national sports campus and all the additional capital sports grants. There have been changes in respect of housing for the elderly and the disabled and the social housing construction sector. All of these will add greatly to the opportunities for young people.

It is not the answer to all our problems but given the circumstances in which we find ourselves, it is a good opportunity for 2014 to provide more incentives and opportunities for young people to get training, upskilling and jobs, which is what everybody wants.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The problem is that the Taoiseach recites all of these figures, statistics and so on but I cannot see any sign of an appropriate and focused investment by the Government in job creation. There is no ongoing effort to try to provide a better context for small businesses. The problems small businesses have are too high rates, too high rents and the fact they cannot get credit. These people would employ another person - a neighbour, a family member or someone from their community - if they were assisted in doing so. Let us look at the jobs figure because the Taoiseach misses something all the time.

I am increasingly intrigued about the effect of emigration on us as an island people. It is causing significant societal damage to communities. The Taoiseach recites figures, but I can remind him that an average of 1,700 citizens emigrate every week. I can also remind him of recent unemployment figures. The major job losses took place in 2008 and 2009. By 2010, the rate of unemployment was 13.8%. When the Taoiseach came into government, the percentage of people on the live register was 13.5%. After two and a half years of austerity policies, the figure is now 13.4%. Tá sé mar a bhí sé. It is still the same. That does not take account of the emigration of almost 300,000 people. Teachtaí Dála from Sinn Féin and all other parties welcome any job announcement or any fall in unemployment. Exports have recovered and that is also to be welcomed. The problem is that the jobs lost in the domestic economy have not returned. The Government should focus on this instead of punishing young people.

I have listened to what has been said by the Minister for stating the obvious, Deputy Burton, about young people being better off in work than on the dole. Was some consultant paid a fat fee to figure that out? Of course everybody would be better off at work than on the dole. Where are the jobs? That is the problem. The issue of demonisation arises in this context. When I represented west Belfast, the mantra was that the people of west Belfast did not own alarm clocks because they did not need them. We put together our own jobs recovery programme - the Obair report - and we undertook an audit of the skills in the community. The people there had faced decades of discrimination and generational unemployment because they were quite rightly perceived to be disloyal to the state. This type of demonisation is the subtext of our dealings with young people nowadays. It is almost as if we consider unemployment to be a lifestyle choice, or we think people are doing well on the dole. We heard last week about flat screen plasma televisions. We have heard about the Government's plans to incentivise these young people to go to work. They need to be given jobs.

The precise proof of this Government's stewardship of many of these matters is the depth, the focus and the amount of real investment in jobs. Opportunities should be pursued on the basis of our strengths. We proposed a fair budget and produced a jobs document. The Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, might be interested to learn that Labour Youth has advocated an increase in the bank levy to end the withdrawal of medical cards, the reductions in the benefits paid to young unemployed people, the cuts in youth services and the discontinuing of the telephone allowance. The idea proposed by Labour Youth makes it clear that there are choices that can be made. When we raise matters of this importance, only to be numbed by mumbled statistics being thrown at us, it is hard for us to respond in a passionate manner. The policies that are required to get people back to work have not been developed under the Taoiseach's watch. This Government is embracing emigration as a policy choice, just as successive Governments have done. That is why earlier today I called on the Taoiseach to resign. We need a change of Government. We need a Government that keeps the promises it makes at election time, faces the elites, the wealthy and those who scundered us, so to speak, and put us into this situation, and works on the genius, intelligence, wit and potential of our people. We are recycling Governments here. We will be recycling these issues until there is a seismic change in how we do our business. This Government will not do that, unfortunately.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I do not accept the Deputy's premise. I ask him to consider where we were when we came in here just over two and a half years ago. The country was blocked out of the international markets. Interest rates were 15% and rising. We had neither word nor integrity. Ireland had gone over a cliff. We have had to make many difficult decisions since then. Where are we now? Interest rates have dropped to 3.7%. The National Treasury Management Agency has built up a buffer of more than €20 billion by going out on the international markets. Some 34,000 new jobs were created in the past 12 months. Some 3,000 jobs a month are being created at the moment. Young men and women throughout the country are being employed in jobs in different areas as a consequence of the stimulus package that is developing bundles of schools, primary care centres and roads despite the economic circumstances. Details of a multi-billion investment that will take place between now and 2015 will be announced by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in due course.

I have visited companies like Twitter, Dell, PayPal, Qualtrics and O'Brien Fine Foods. I have listened to a young man from America who came here and said he had a problem trying to find more space, rather than more people. He said he would be back again in 18 months to employ more people. We are very proud of the young men and women who have been given opportunities by people who want to invest in this country. This cosmopolitan and energetic city is seen as a great place in which to invest because of all the movement and action that takes place here. Some 10,000 entrepreneurs will come here at the end of the month for the world digital forum, which is driven by Mr. Paddy Cosgrave. No other country in the world can deal with that. These young, energetic, innovative, thinking, creative and imaginative people are dealing with the creation of the future.

The Deputy raised a couple of interesting points. Clearly, the Government focused on the creation of jobs in the budget that was announced last week. I meet young people all over the country who are not afraid of the future. They point to proposals and ideas they would like to see happening. The Government reflects this in many ways. One of the issues was the retention of the 9% lower rate of VAT in the hospitality sector. When I meet people from that sector, I am told that they are proud to work in it and to be part of the reception committee from Ireland that gives people a really good experience and makes them want to come back. Whether those who decried The Gathering like it or not, the evidence of that initiative speaks for itself.

The Government's brave decision to abolish the travel tax was the right one. It was responded to immediately by Ryanair when that airline gave a commitment to bring an additional 1 million people to this country. If those people have good experiences, get good value and have an opportunity to reflect kindly on Ireland, that will lead to repeat business from places from which we might not have got many visitors before now. I think that is good. There are 150,000 people employed in the agri-sector. I went to Naas some time ago to turn the sod on a €100 million expansion by the Kerry Group, which is already employing 200 young graduates - men and women - as researchers and innovators in the food area. Food science is a major issue. As I have said, we are exporting more than €9 billion of produce to more than 150 countries. Deputy Adams was at the ploughing championships and so was I. The majority of the young people who were there see potential up ahead.

Government has a response and a requirement to respond to that by opening the doors of opportunity. That is why, for instance, in a small but important gesture, the farmer's flat rate addition was increased from 4.8% to 5%, with effect from 1 January next. That is to do with compensation for farmers for VAT incurred on their outputs. We extended the capital gains tax retirement relief to disposals of long-term leased farm land in certain circumstances because when quotas go - as Glanbia is now investing on the Kilkenny-Carlow border - there will be 2,500 new jobs created on farms through the potential that exists there. We are a grass-based country and there are serious opportunities ahead. The eligibility for young trained farmer's relief is also being extended by three more qualifying courses. The Deputy is aware of the increased interest in that.

I have referred to the home renovation incentive and the €200 million injection in capital programmes for that. NAMA is also willing to make €2 billion available in vendor capital to purchasers of commercial properties in Ireland. It has lent €375 million across six major transactions already. These are all filled with job potential.

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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On-line trading.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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We are retaining the 12.5% corporation tax.

As the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, has reminded me, the potential for on-line trade in the retail and other sectors is enormous. Only a very small percentage of that is generated in Ireland. That will rise to serious numbers in billions of euro over the next period.

In respect of the Deputy's point about small and medium enterprises, SMEs, the Irish economy will be built on their backs. The major banks have measured up in terms of the objective for each to lend €4 billion in new loans for 2013. I expect those targets to be reached. I have difficulty with some of the SMEs because, irrespective of whether their applications or proposals are valid, many are turned down and the Credit Review Office needs to consider the conditions applied. There was a ten-point plan in last year's budget specifically for SMEs. The cash receipts basis threshold for VAT is now increased from €1.25 million to €2 million with effect from 1 May next year. The overall increase of €1 million will assist cash flow for those SMEs.

I was in Wicklow at the location for the filming of The Vikings. It is an extraordinary location with huge numbers employed. Having met personnel in America to discuss this, I am glad the film relief scheme was extended to 2016 and included non-EU talent. It is a very labour-intensive area.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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We need the Vikings to come back.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Through how many more countries does the Taoiseach have to travel before he reaches the conclusion to this answer?

Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Boyd Barrett would object to their coming back.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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They are coming down the east coast.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I am talking about SMEs. I mentioned the start-your-own-business scheme whereby young people can start their own businesses, unincorporated and with a two-year exemption from income tax up to €40,000. That is a real incentive. To encourage innovation, the key recommendations for the research and development tax credit have been implemented. These relate to the outsourcing of research and development qualifying expenditure in relation to the base year. That is important as is the capital gains tax relief for entrepreneurs who reinvest the proceeds from a disposal of assets on which capital gains had previously been paid, in a new investment and in productive trading activities. In other words, a person who invests in a business and who would normally have to pay capital gains tax on the proceeds can now reinvest on an ongoing basis in a new venture. These things are important for SMEs.

Deputy Martin says he does not see the evidence. I was in Limerick a couple of days ago-----

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The Vikings were there too.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I visited a major firm there, Vistakon.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Vistakon has been there a long time.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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All of the sophisticated equipment there, the robotics and the software, was developed and designed by young Irish engineers in that region. The sophistication of what they do is incredible. One of the most serious statements made in this country was made by Intel.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, is there a time limit on answers to questions?

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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No there is not.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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There is not; fair enough.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The new Quark chip on the Galileo board is marked "Designed in Ireland", for the first time in 40 years. That has the capacity to provide enormous potential for our young creators. Government wants to be in that space, assisting young people with their ideas, proposals and requests. We cannot do it all at once but these are serious decisions that will affect in a small way particular groups, all of which adds to the growing picture of a country on the move.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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May I ask one question?

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will have to be brief because Deputies Adams, Higgins and Boyd Barrett want to come in.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I asked a very specific question. There were 66,183 people under the age of 25 on the live register as of September. In the context of the youth guarantee scheme, how many training places have been provided for these 66,183 young people? In 2012 there were 18,000 places. Will the Taoiseach accept that the €14 million added to the budget this year can in no way make up the gap between the 18,000 places that were available last year and the 66,000 young people on the live register this year? That is an increase of 20,000 people on last year's figure. How many training places have been provided for these people? Can the Taoiseach outline when the guarantee scheme will commence?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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From a European perspective the youth guarantee scheme starts in January and the programme must be prepared before the end of the year. The Minister for Social Protection is anxious to move on this as quickly as possible, with the extra €14 million. Many of those 66,000 are back in education. I am not sure whether the Deputy has those figures in front of him.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I have nothing.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I attended a Cabinet discussion on this matter this morning. I would like to take a few Ministers from the main Departments and focus on the extent and capacity of what we can actually put in place.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Do we know how many will be put in place?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I have read out the list.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The figure was 18,000 last year.

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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There are a great many more this year.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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How many?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Obviously, a lot more than last year.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Everybody has been talking about this guarantee scheme since the end of the EU summit. There was to be a €6 billion - it then became €8 billion - guarantee in Europe. They say it will provide a guarantee for every young person in Europe and in this country. I am asking a question months on, and while I accept that in the budget €14 million has been added to the existing money, no one has a clue how many additional places will be provided. Is this all rhetoric or is it meaningful and will there be a substantive convergence between the 66,000 on the live register and the actual number of training places to be provided? I am talking about training, education and work experience opportunities from now on. Do we know?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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As part of the European Presidency we put together a budget of €960 billion for the EU, a part of which is the €6 billion for youth unemployment. Of course that will not do the business. There is no point leaving it lying around until 2020 when young people will have moved on, in respect of their age and what they are at.

We want to rise to the challenge of providing as many places as we can. Programmes have been developed, either through the State or the State agencies, or as an amalgamation of private and State enterprise, for example, the JobBridge scheme was piloted for 5,000.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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That was under a previous government.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It has gone over 20,000 people, 60% of whom end up in full-time employment, which is a very good thing.

We could have a longer discussion about this in the House at an appropriate time.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I do not think we will. We never have these discussions.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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All the Deputy wants is for me to give him a figure so he can come back and tell me we did not reach the figure, whatever it might be. I know that is what the Deputy is at.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is not what I am at.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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As far as I am concerned we want to provide the maximum number possible through all the different schemes.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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It is reasonable to ask what targets the Government has set. The additional spend earmarked in the budget is approximately €260 per unemployed young person. Is that enough for quality training? Is that enough for education? Does the Government have a strategy or has it even discussed the fact that so many people have left and are leaving?

We have welcomed some of the measures put forward by the Government and advocated some of them ourselves. I still think the Taoiseach is remiss in respect of the enormity of the problem. He has been in office for two and a half years so it is a very reasonable question to ask. The number of unemployed young people under the Government's stewardship has increased by 18,000. The response is all stick. There is no incentive and there are no jobs for these young people to go to. They want to work. We should not tar them with the same brush as if there is some sort of plague out there to the effect that because people come from a certain social background, they do not want to work or this is a lifestyle choice.

Can the Government not bring forward more than the generalities of what it is producing? What has this committee on economic recovery and jobs been doing if it has not been setting targets? What about the report card idea? Does he remember the report card?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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We will shortly produce the action plan for jobs quarterly report. The Deputy will see the facts of life exposed there both in terms of the successes and failures. I am more interested in the outcome of these rather than just saying I have implemented a percentage of so many actions. Deputy Adams continually refers to emigration. He seeks to address it with a Sinn Féin proposal for a higher third rate of income tax of 48% leaving a total top tax rate of 59%. He would drive every initiator and entrepreneur out of the country.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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We will not.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I have the privilege of meeting people in different locations - not that I travel abroad too often - but I am very happy to meet people who have gone because of the requirement to get greater experience or because their company sends them. I meet the people who have left because they felt they had no hope here. They are the people we need to encourage to come back. I was very pleased last week when one of the major road contractors was able to tell me that it had brought back six civil engineers from London to work on its site here in the west. It was only a small thing but it is an important trend. We need to see more of that. The more capital investment-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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What county was it in?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It was the Ballaghadereen bypass - one of the few that went ahead last year. The point is that the company brought back six engineers. It is a very small thing but it is important for those people. It is not a case of not recognising the fact that many people have left. There is a delegation in the US talking to the public representatives in Washington, DC, about the undocumented Irish. It is not all rosy in the garden when people go away. Prices have increased in Australia, it is not as easy as people might imagine to pick up employment, and skills and trades are very important. That is all part of the mix here.

When I meet these politicians from abroad, they see how Ireland has moved into a very different space. Please God, 2014 will be a more progressive year for the country economically and from a jobs perspective. The more we can rectify our economic problems, the more we can invest in facilities and opportunities. We have programmes for technological universities and the integration between the world of academia and business. I see how, around the country, there is clearly a need for the institutes of technology to be able to provide technicians who can go beyond their local area, for the universities to be able to supply engineers and for an engagement between the academic and commercial worlds. The other day, I saw how at that plant in the midwest, all of the material - robotics, electronics and software - had been designed by local engineers in different firms, which is great. When companies ask their employees for ideas about how they improve the situation, they are moving to a different level and that is where we need to be.

I meet some of these people who invest in Ireland. Why do they come here? Yes, tax is a fundamental issue but the setting of the bar high enough for people who want to get in there is a factor. Not everybody can be a PhD or get a Master's degree but it is the responsibility of Government to be as open as possible to create as much business as possible. That is why we need competence, effectiveness, a strong economy running well and an education system that is flexible enough to meet the demands that are coming in the times ahead.

Others look at us with a degree of envy in many respects. We are not perfect by any means but we will work very hard in the time ahead to make the difference. I see a real opportunity for Irish-based and Irish-grown small and medium-sized enterprises that employ locally and supply larger firms or export directly. At the national ploughing championships, I was struck by the extent of new Irish engineering firms in a range of areas that have grown up in the last period. That is a great development and we must encourage more of it. Insofar as the Government can work with these creators of opportunity, we will.

I recently visited Cherrywood when the most recent full commercial licence for a bank was issued by the Central Bank in the case of Dell Financial Services. It supplies money to firms that use its technology at its rates, which is a move towards the supply of finance and credit for small and medium-sized enterprises that is non-mainline banking. Much of this has been supplied in other countries for many years. I see a trend emerging in that area as well. It is all about listening to groups and people but also being provocative in making decisions that might involve some risk, such as the abolition of the air travel tax. Let us hope that it works and impacts on the hospitality sector for the benefit of everybody in all areas around the country.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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The reality is that the level of Government spin on so-called economic recovery and jobs over the past two months has reached a scale that is truly Orwellian and bears no relation to the reality of people's lives in this State or outside it who have been driven out by economic crisis. Will the Taoiseach accept that the figure of 400,000 people on the live register who are unemployed or seriously underemployed is only the beginning? Will he accept that one can almost add another 100,000 from various spurious holding schemes such as JobBridge? A total of 20% of those participating found work with their host company and 16% found work with other companies.

The Taoiseach spins the figures. He does not give the real figures that were put out after the Indecon report. Is it not pathetic that the Government must funnel young talented people through this ScamBridge, as my colleague Paul Murphy, MEP, calls it, for 18 months when they might have an offer of a job? If the job is there, why would it not be given at the proper cost rather than at €50 per week? It is pathetic. Does the Taoiseach accept that if one takes the current live register plus the people on the schemes and the 300,000 who have been forced out of our country in economic emigration in the past five years, the real number on the live register would be 800,000, which is an indication of the real scale of the crisis?

Does the Taoiseach accept that his proposal is a Mickey Mouse one, and that is to dignify it? Is he for real in proposing to get rid of a travel tax costing a few euro as a job creation measure? Does he not understand what is going on in the real world of Irish capitalism? In 2007, gross fixed capital formation, in other words, investment, was €48 billion. In 2012 the figure had fallen to €17.4 billion. That is where the story begins and ends. If there is no investment by the private sector there will not be employment. In the eurozone alone, up to €2 trillion in accumulated profits is being hoarded by big corporations which refuse to invest because it is not profitable enough for them to do so. Against that context, has the Taoiseach studied the figures from the Nevin Economic Research Institute which show that every €1 billion that the State invests in job creation - which would be only €575 billion net because of what would come back in taxes - could create 16,750 jobs directly and indirectly? Is the implication not clear for what Government policy should be? Instead of tapping around at the edges, why will he not go to the heart of the matter? I ask him to be specific in his answer because he is more masterly than his predecessor, Bertie Ahern, at spinning acres and acres of cotton wool and figures that engulf us in a miasma through which we cannot find our way.

The Central Bank stated that net domestic wealth in quarter 4 of 2012 was €461 billion. This figure is deliberately not analysed properly in terms of who has the wealth in our society but the Wealth of Nations report from the Bank of Ireland, which was the most recent analysis in this regard albeit published years ago, estimated that 1% of the population held 20% of the wealth. That means 1% held €92 billion, all of them multimillionaires. A tax of 1% on this amount would yield €583 million and if the Government imposed an emergency tax of 5% next year, it would get €2.9 billion. These people would not even miss the money. It is cigar money for them. Why will the Taoiseach not take radical action of this nature in order to invest the money in public job creating investment programmes that could deliver tens of thousands of jobs? The private sector, such as the small businesses about which he speaks, would also blossom from the downstream effects of that investment. That is how he should tackle employment and provide for economic recovery. Why does he not implement measures of this nature rather than the makey-uppy stuff that will leave our people in misery for the coming years, with forced unemployment, parents seeing their children leave and the misery of the dole?

What the Taoiseach was up to in yesterday's Irish Independentwith his article on welfare was an outrage, alongside the Minister for Social Protection. This Government is quickly evolving into the most right-wing Government, economically, in the history of this State. It is outrageous to blame unemployment on the unemployed and the crisis on young people. It is time to call it as it is. Only a few of us are doing so because the media are in the Government's corner.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I was recently in Blanchardstown, which I understand is in Deputy Higgins's constituency. I had the privilege of opening a new data content storage facility with investors from Ireland and Canada. The people working at that facility, in the Deputy's constituency, are real people. They go to work every day, they earn their living and they pay all their taxes.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Unlike the wealthy.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy does not seem to think that is real. In fact, he does not seem to want that kind of investment, despite the fact that reports on the area of data content and storage capacity indicate increases of between 15% and 17% year on year until 2017. That means the extra space in the aforementioned facility will be filled before long not only with equipment but also with people working in the Deputy's constituency.

I suggest he go to Newlands Cross to examine the roadworks underway there. People are working there. That comes about from investment and decisions made in appropriate conditions to put up that kind of money. The same applies on the road south and, next year please God, on the road from Gort to Tuam to shorten travel times and to provide opportunities for people to work. Does the Deputy not think the PPP programme, whereby eight major schools are being built and 1,000 jobs are being created, should be implemented? These are real jobs for craftsmen, block layers, scaffolders, welders and electricians. Does he not think that is a good thing to do?

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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We want more of them.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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He said these are Mickey Mouse jobs. Mickey Mouse seems to be around these corridors a lot these days. Deputy Higgins is not the only one to have caught him in a trap.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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I was speaking about scambridge.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I do not accept the Deputy's use of the description by Paul Murphy, MEP, of the JobBridge scheme as scambridge. Paul Murphy, MEP, is yet to be elected by the people. Deputy Higgins has been elected and he is entitled to speak in this House. If he speaks to the young graduates who now have jobs in his constituency they will give him a very different version of the opportunity to work through their qualification with an employer and the opportunity to get a permanent job or to start their own businesses. I remind him that 25,000 people are coming to this country every year. They are emigrating from other countries and they contribute to our economy, our welfare and our work ethic generally. The Deputy does not appear to recognise that.

He is confusing the banking crisis and collapse, whereby the wealth of this country was eroded since the time to which he referred, with investment opportunities in Ireland and our export potential. Last year was the best for the IDA in the past ten years and last year and this year were the best for Enterprise Ireland, which assists companies from this country to export abroad. Both new investors and expanding companies are staffed by workers who measure up in terms of productivity, change and direction. The Deputy does not seem to recognise that. It appears that, in his warped philosophy, he does not want anybody to work.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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He is old fashioned.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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His native county has never had a better year for the hospitality sector and it wants more of that. One would think that kind of investment would be recognised by the Deputy as an advantage for the country, our economy and our people because these are real jobs.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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I recognise that Kerry's football clubs are decimated by emigration.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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He does not seem to want that. I reject completely his assertion about Mickey Mouse opportunities. These are opportunities for young people to get a start on the ladder and if he is like the promoters of the party in front of him in wanting them to languish on the dole queues with no opportunities, responses or incentives, that is not the space the Government is in or the space I am in.

We are working very closely with the Minister for Social Protection in changing the structures so that people can have opportunities to work.

I visited the Intreo offices in Dundalk and Sligo. In group interviews and individual interviews, people were asked what they would like to do, what were their talents, what were their skills and whether they wanted to become technicians, welders, block layers or whatever. There are opportunities created for young people. They have all got a talent. They have all got a flare. They may not all be PhDs or have masters degrees in scientific analysis but they have a part to play and we want to give them that opportunity. That is where the investment for Government will continue to be. I do not accept the Deputy's assertions at all.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Higgins is Joe Mouse.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Does the Taoiseach not believe that he should give a straight apology for-----

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The Mickey Mouse stuff.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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-----the suggestion that he made at the weekend that there was something called a welfare dependency culture? He has just made the same implication about people languishing on the dole as if there is some voluntary element to it and that forcing them into what he laughingly calls labour activation measures by cutting social welfare payments for 22, 23, 24 and 25 year olds is actually the way to get people back into work. The implication is that these young people - or anyone on the live register - are on it through their own fault. The Taoiseach should admit that a welfare dependency culture is not the problem. Unless, that is, we are referring to the welfare dependency of bankers and the super wealthy. They have a serious dependency. They know that they can wreck an economy and rip people off royally for years and years, yet the Government will come along and bail them out at every turn. How does that stimulate the economy, enterprise and creativity? Some of the people in question are still in the most senior positions in the Irish banks despite having promoted madcap development plans and bankrupting the country in the process. They are still running our banks. That is a dependency culture that we want to root out. We must take serious action to deal with it.

It is clear that the overwhelming majority of people are forced - let me emphasise that word - to sign on because there are no jobs. Why does the Taoiseach not admit-----

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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There are less than three minutes remaining. Does the Deputy want a reply from the Taoiseach?

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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-----that fact? Some 40,000 people are leaving the country every year because there are no jobs, not because they are lazy. Is the Taoiseach not ashamed to be in a Government that oversees 40,000 of our best and brightest people leaving per year? Does it not have an obligation to make the investment that would create real jobs, not pretend jobs or a massaging of the figures?

Department of Finance officials last week told the finance committee of an interesting anomaly in the public finances. There used to be something called jobless growth. We now have growthless jobs, that is, virtually no growth while the Government claims a decrease in unemployment and a great deal of job creation. The officials could not quite explain this anomaly. Has the Taoiseach examined it? The only explanation is mass emigration and the Government's massaging of the unemployment figures by putting people into schemes. This is the reality - not jobs, but schemes with no real jobs at the end in most cases. Why does the Taoiseach not admit the truth about the scale of emigration and unemployment? Let us deal with these issues in a real way for those who are languishing in that position involuntarily. They do not want to be there or to be demonised or stigmatised by the Taoiseach or anyone else. What they need are real jobs, not pretend jobs, scam jobs or Gateway jobs, in which people will do the work of local council workers for €20 on top of their dole, thereby replacing full-time and properly paid jobs. It is a disgrace.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Our time has almost concluded.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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That is the usual Deputy Boyd Barrett rant. First, he has-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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After the Taoiseach's usual blather.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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-----an outrageous capacity to say that people insult our young people.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Taoiseach was insulting them.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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What I said was that Deputy Higgins was giving the impression that they should be left to languish on the dole queues. I do not believe that.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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No, I did not give that impression.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I do not accept that.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Do not be ridiculous.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy, please.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The responsibility of Government is to open the doors of opportunity for business.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Open the doors on emigration.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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One cannot do it with interest rates at 15% when we were blocked out of the international markets and when we had neither word nor reputation. That has been changed.

I would like Deputy Bord Barrett some day to say how, if the banks all collapsed, he thinks that the economy would function. Perhaps that is what he wants, given his warped political philosophy. I do not accept from him that real jobs are not real jobs.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Talk to the finance officials.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy cannot argue with the Central Statistics Office facts and figures of the number of people who are at work. He cannot argue with the fact that the live register has declined for 16 consecutive months.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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If there were more jobs, there would be more GNP. It is a simple fact, but there is none.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I would be the first to say to him that people have emigrated from the country and continue to do so. I resent that they feel that they have to leave. The Government has got to do the very best that it can in meeting that challenge. No more than Deputy Higgins's view of employment, I hope that, when the living city initiative is transferred out to Dún Laoghaire and that the pre-1915 houses and properties are being done up and renovated by plasterers, tradesmen, carpenters, brick layers and roofers, Deputy Boyd Barrett will recognise that somebody is prepared to work, that these are real jobs and not pretend jobs and that it will enhance the infrastructure-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I will believe it when I see it.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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-----and the society where he lives and where he goes around spouting-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I will give the Taoiseach the names of plenty of brick layers who are looking for work.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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-----his individual political philosophy every week that people cannot work, that people should work, and that he has some magic wand that can transform this into a situation where one can have a couple of hundred thousand real jobs created just like that. Life, unfortunately, is not like that.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It was in Fine Gael's election manifesto.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Correct.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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NewERA and 100,000 jobs.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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NewERA is the old era.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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That is a major investment in strategic infrastructure and a lot of jobs will come from it, as Deputy Martin will find down in his own country before too long.