Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Question 30: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the measures he will take to counter youth unemployment and emigration. [9936/11]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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In a globalised economy, workers are increasingly mobile and migration, both inward and outward, has always been a feature of Ireland's labour force. However, there is clearly a difference between voluntary migration where people choose to work abroad for various reasons, and the current situation where many people feel that they have to look elsewhere for work until such time as there are jobs available in the Irish economy and their skills are once more in demand. This Government is committed to ensuring that emigration becomes an option as opposed to a necessity and to this end the Programme for Government has job creation at its core.

The role of my Department is to ensure that we have the right policies in place that will support and grow our enterprise base in order to facilitate both job creation and job retention. It is only by creating the right environment for businesses to expand that we will see new jobs coming on stream. We must champion the cause of companies that can create good jobs in sustainable activities.

To this end, this Government has committed to the creation of a Jobs Initiative, the details of which will be announced next Tuesday. It would not be appropriate for me to comment on the detail of the Jobs Initiative in advance of its presentation to the House. However, I anticipate that it will address a number of the commitments made in the Programme for Government to stimulate the economy and generate the conditions for businesses to sustain existing jobs and create new ones.

The State Development agencies, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, and the County and City Enterprise Boards are continuing to drive and promote enterprise development, and consequently employment creation in our economy

In order to minimise the drift into long-term unemployment, four cohorts of the unemployed have been prioritised for support and assistance. The four cohorts are; the low skilled; those under 35 years of age; those on the Live Register for longer than one year and those suffering from structural unemployment in the manufacturing, construction and retail sectors.

The training, work experience and education measures that are being implemented in 2011 are designed to help those who are unemployed gain valuable work experience, maintain close linkages with the labour market, improve their skills and education levels and ultimately to improve their career prospects. My colleagues the Minister's for Education and Skills and Social Protection, Ruairi Quinn T.D. and Joan Burton T.D share dual responsibility for skills and activation measures.

The Government is committed to ensuring that an appropriate mix of training, work experience and educational responses are in place to support the unemployed and to enhance their employability.