Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Question 96: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he is satisfied that the measures taken to date by him to combat unemployment are adequate. [14988/11]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The live register figures published last week remind us once again of the scale of the challenge facing the economy and the government. The seasonally adjusted live register for May 2011 shows 440,947 persons seeking employment compared with 154,000 in May 2007, an increase of approximately 286,000. These figures underline the extent of the challenge we face in reducing unemployment.

On 10th May, the Government launched a range of measures under the Jobs Initiative to improve the competitiveness of the economy, to support the maintenance of existing jobs and the creation of new ones, and to assist those who are currently unemployed to return to work. The labour market aspect of the Jobs Initiative includes the creation of an extra 20,900 activation places for the unemployed. These places will be delivered by the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Education and Skills. The overall objective of the Government's labour market policy is to ensure a pathway to appropriate employment, training and education opportunities for those on the Live Register, and to improve their employment prospects as new job opportunities become available through economic recovery.

In addition to the labour market interventions in the Jobs Initiative, the Government also introduced a number of measures to boost the domestic economy, including:

· the introduction of a new temporary, second reduced rate of VAT to apply primarily to restaurant and catering services, hotel and holiday accommodation and various entertainment services;

· the halving of the lower rate of employer's PRSI on earnings up to €356 per week;

· the reduction of the air travel tax rate to zero;

· a major reform to the visa application system for entry to Ireland;

· the focusing of the State's capital expenditure towards more employment-intensive projects in the areas of education, local and regional roads and sustainable transport projects;

· additional funding for energy efficiency schemes;

· improvements to the R&D tax credit scheme.

Commitments were also given in the Jobs Initiative to developing proposals for a partial credit guarantee scheme to improve access to finance for SMEs, and for a Microfinance Start-up Fund. All of these measures will contribute to combating unemployment by stimulating the economy and facilitating job creation and retention. The Jobs Initiative was an important first step in putting jobs at the heart of the new Government's strategy. The Programme for Government outlines a much broader range of initiatives which will be embodied in that strategy.