John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak in support of the Labour Party motion as it is one of the most important motions to come before the House in some time. After listening to Senator Callely it is my view that neither the Government Members of this House nor the Government fully grasp the level of desperation among unemployed younger people in particular and the seriousness of the situation for the future of the country, the economy and the social fabric of Ireland. Unemployment is a very destructive force. It is not solely to do with people working and contributing taxes but it affects their health and future and the future of the community to which they belong. The Government in its recent budgets has not shown any regard for the disastrous consequences of unemployment on individuals and communities. This is the reason I fully support the Labour Party motion.

I listened with interest to Senator Callely's comments. He spoke about people having to accept the position. They might have to accept the position but the Government's duty is to make choices. The Government made a decision a number of months ago to inject capital into a number of our banks, some of which will never function properly again and yet the taxpayer has already invested €7 billion or €8 billion in them. The Government has not taken the same measures to address the issue of unemployment. If the economy and the country are to be anything like they were two or three years ago, we have to get people back to work. I do not agree with all the measures in the recent budget but the Government has taken necessary measures; I do not agree with some of the methods used to reduce the public service wage bill but it did not take the other necessary measure which was to promote employment. The Government amendment to the motion refers to what I regard as the pathetic little it has done and it refers to the employment subsidy scheme. It took six months before the first round of payments under this scheme were paid out. The Government has restated the projections that it would support 80,000 jobs but within its first six months the scheme was only supporting 8,000 jobs. This is a sign it is failing in what the Government set out for it to achieve and this is very worrying. The Government also announced a work placement scheme which, to the best of my knowledge, has fewer than 200 applicants. This is a pathetic result.

Ireland has the second highest unemployment rate within the European Union with approximately 88,000 people under the age of 25 unemployed, that is, one third of all men under the age of 25 are currently unemployed. This is completely unacceptable and young people are bearing the brunt. Senators on the Government side of the House as well as on this side deal with schools and educational institutions in the course of our work. I left school in 1997 which was a time of great opportunity when the Labour Party and Fine Gael had been in Government for three years. It was a time when 1,000 jobs a week were being created, there was free third level education and people like me had opportunities which existed for the following seven or eight years. It is a different situation for those doing their leaving certificate this year or coming to the end of their college education because those opportunities are not available.

The Government decided in the recent budget to cut welfare payments to younger unemployed people. The Government's message to that generation of Irish people was that they should get out of the country. For many years people were our biggest export and I never thought we would see the day when the Government would officially endorse by its own policy position that emigration was the best road for young people to take. Some of the measures taken so far clearly endorse the message that young people should head for the emigration boat. It is pathetic that the Minister of State in charge of employment does not seem to have any proposals of any constructive nature as to how jobs might be created. I am not suggesting this is an easy task but if parties in Opposition such as Fine Gael or the Labour Party or other individuals can come up with some realistic proposals, I do not see why the Minister of State and the Tánaiste cannot have some form of original thought on this issue which is the most significant crisis facing Ireland as a nation.

Fine Gael has proposed a national internship programme involving both the public and private sectors, where young people would be given roles within the public and private sectors on a part-time basis and also given the opportunity to continue on to further education and study at master and postgraduate level while in the national internship programme. Fine Gael has also proposed a second-chance education scheme. The Government has proposed a work placement scheme but this does not seem to be working and a radical rethink and change of direction is needed in that regard.

I refer to the community employment schemes which were much denigrated for many years. In the 1980s during the last economic recession, the Government of the time made moves to expand the remit of community employment schemes but it is not planning to take such action on this occasion. I presume the Minister of State can see the sense of giving somebody a small bit of extra money to do some work and contribute to the community. There are many unemployed people who would be willing to do this work if given the opportunity but the Minister of State could not even come up with this idea, which is not even new.

I have spoken about FÁS on other occasions as have other Members. It is very disappointing that at the time we need the State training agency more than we have ever needed it for the past 20 years, it finds itself embroiled in controversy. The Government has introduced legislation to reform the operations of FÁS but this is not sufficient. We need to restore confidence to the State training agency and I do not see that confidence being restored. The organisation is still receiving significant funding and I commend its excellent work and its training staff. However, that budget needs to be refocused on aspects of the economy which hold out the best prospect of success and recovery.

I support the Labour Party motion and I urge the Senators opposite to support it.