Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)

I ask the Leader to arrange a debate with the Taoiseach or the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. Last month the European Commission announced in a very public way that it intended to send an action team to Ireland to discuss the issue of youth unemployment. Yesterday this team came and went without any public consultation or discourse with public stakeholders. As soon as Commissioner Barroso announced the initiative, I wrote to him and to the Department of the Taoiseach to seek a meeting so that I could inform the process by sharing my views with the action team.

Last week, Commissioner Maroš Šefcovic stated that 7.5 million young people across the EU are not in employment, education or training. In this State more than 80,000 people under the age of 25 are unemployed and 12 people will emigrate from each of the electoral divisions of the State this year.

The refusal by the Department of the Taoiseach to facilitate even a brief discussion on what the Commission described as a serious challenge that can only be properly addressed if all stakeholders, including political parties like Sinn Féin, play an active role despite my having requested a meeting well in advance of the team's arrival in Ireland raises serious doubts about whether this was anything more than a public relations stunt. Young people are only mentioned once in over 100 pages in the jobs plan announced last week. We need to stop dealing in press releases and get serious on the issue of youth unemployment. The Taoiseach, the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach or the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation should come into this House to discuss this issue properly because we cannot continue to pay lip-service to it. It is a serious issue that affects every community and family in this State. I ask the Leader in the nicest possible terms to facilitate a debate on it at the earliest opportunity.