Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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58. To ask the Minister for Finance the rate of unemployment in the State when this Government took office; the current rate of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15793/14]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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61. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of persons in employment in the State when this Government took office; the current number of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15797/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 58 and 61 together.

This Government took office on the 9th of March 2011. According to the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) prepared by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) the unemployment rate was 14.3% in the first quarter of 2011. The most recent QNHS data from the CSO show that the unemployment rate fell to 11.7% in the fourth quarter of 2013, which represents a fall of 54,400 in the number of people unemployed. Live Register data up to the end of March 2014 indicate that the downward trend in unemployment is continuing. According to the QNHS data, the total number of persons in employment in the Irish economy in the first quarter of 2011 was 1,841,800. The most recent data from the CSO show that 1,909,800 people were employed in the fourth quarter of 2013, an increase of 68,000 people since the Government took office. In addition, in the fourth quarter of 2013 the CSO recorded year-on-year employment growth of 3.3%, the strongest rate of growth in over six years.

Since it came into office, the key objective of this Government has been to get our people back to work. The above figures demonstrate that we are implementing the right policies to achieve this objective.