John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 225: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he can outline the way his action plan for jobs will tackle youth unemployment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6885/12]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government will shortly publish a policy statement on labour market activation, "Pathways to Work", which will set out its strategies to tackle unemployment and help job seekers to get back to work.

In addition, I am currently finalising the 2012 Action Plan for Jobs on behalf of the Government, for publication in the coming weeks. The Plan will contain a significant number of tangible measures to protect existing jobs and to support the creation of new jobs across the economy. It will set out a range of initiatives to promote enterprise growth, improve competitiveness and develop key sectors of the economy where Ireland can gain a competitive advantage, including in areas such as manufacturing, cloud computing, agri-food and digital gaming.

The 2012 Action Plan will mark a new process by the Government of outlining its plans to support job creation on an annual basis, with the aim having 100,000 more people in work by 2016 and two million people at work by 2020. If we can achieve this level of ambition, it will have a significant impact on tackling unemployment amongst young people.