Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome Senator Cahill to the House and wish her well in her future career. I also want to pay tribute to former Senator Jimmy Harte. I wish him well and a full recovery.

Senator Moloney referred to the employment figures. These now show that over 135,000 new jobs were created since February 2012. The unemployment rate is now 8.9%, which is a significant and welcome drop from the rate of 15% which obtained when we entered office. For the first time since 2008, fewer than 200,000 people are unemployed. There are interesting figures for job creation in terms of the south east, where employment has increased by 14.4%. In the midlands it has increased by 13.8% and by 12% in Border areas. Job creation is happening right across the country. I accept what Senator Moloney said, namely, that certain areas require further work. In the past 12 months, 56,000 new jobs - over 1,000 per week - were created. This shows that what the Minister, Deputy Bruton, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have said and done in recent months is now coming home to roost in the sense that people are back in employment. The number of long-term unemployed has decreased from 204,000 to 109,800, which is a substantial drop, but we still have a lot of work to do in this area.

We also have a great deal of work to do in respect of people under 25 years of age who are unemployed. We need to ensure they have access to training and education opportunities in order that they will not become long-term unemployed. Perhaps we might have a debate at some stage to determine the further action we need to take to deal with young people aged under 25 who are currently unemployed and who have missed out on education and training opportunities. This is an important area on which we need to work. I ask the Leader to make time available in order that we might invite the Minister to the House to come before the House to discuss the matter.