Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 139: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment her plans to set up any new schemes to combat unemployment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11679/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Government have introduced a wide range of measures to combat unemployment. My Department is providing significantly increased resources to assist the unemployed and I have more than doubled the capacity of the job search supports and the number of training and work experience places for the unemployed since 2008.

In the past year, to prevent unemployment I introduced the €100 million Enterprise Stabilisation Fund and the €135 million Employment Subsidy Scheme. To assist those who are unemployed I introduced the Work Placement Programme, the Short Time Training Programme, the Part Time Third Level places initiative and the Labour Market Activation Fund. I have also made three applications to the European Globalisation Fund for support in relation to large-scale redundancies such as DELL.

In addition to these measures, the Government have introduced other initiatives such as the Employer Jobs (PRSI) Incentive Scheme, where an employer creates a new job and takes on a person who has been unemployed for 6 months or more, the employer will be fully exempted from the liability to pay PRSI for the first year of that employment. In the education sector provision has also been expanded to cater for the increased numbers of people seeking to engage in a further or higher education course. The Government, through the Cabinet Committee on Economic Renewal will continue to review the measures available to combat unemployment and if necessary will introduce other measures in the future.