Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I call for a sense of reality in respect of the exuberance on the Government side on the increase in employment. Below the radar, one does not have to read into the detail too far to find that 23% of young people in the State are unemployed. Of those, 57% are long-term unemployed, meaning they have been out of work for over a year. We have a crisis, notwithstanding that the unemployment rate has improved. Thousands of our young people continue to emigrate. While many of them have jobs, they still want to leave. We must address the reasons we cannot hold on to many of our young people who have jobs.
Multinationals thrive in Ireland where conditions are perfect for them, but the conditions are not quite perfect for small and medium-sized Irish companies as ISME has so frequently reminded us. Last Friday night, Mr. Hugh Kelly, the president of the Irish Exporters Association, said:

We need to increase considerably the number of Irish companies exporting. We need to encourage Irish companies to believe they can succeed at exporting and we need to help Irish companies to risk to derisk rather than never to take a risk. We need to box clever to stretch our nation's limited resources.

I call for an urgent debate on the unbalanced regional development we have nationally. It was referred to already this morning regarding Leitrim. I want to discuss the lack of women entrepreneurs taking the risk of setting up businesses. I remind Members that 23% of young people in this country are unemployed of whom 57% have been out of work for over a year.