asked the Minister for Labour why the 1979 Estimates provide for a reduction of £3 million for the employment incentive scheme.

During 1978 employment incentive scheme premiums paid to employers in respect of eligible additions to their employment levels totalled £4.4 million approximately, £2.6 million less than the provision for the year.

As new jobs for young people under the age of 25 supported under this scheme in 1979 will likely qualify for assistance from the European Social Fund, it is estimated that the provision included in the Estimates will be adequate not only to continue the scheme at last year's rate of uptake by employers but for some increase in that rate.

How many jobs does the Minister expect to create by the scheme in the current year and what is the increase over last year?

As I have said in the reply, it is hoped to repeat the record figure of last year, which was 10,410.

Will the Minister acknowledge that the scheme, which is a baby of Deputy Michael O'Leary and not Deputy Fitzgerald, was the biggest contributory factor to job creation last year, and that it exceeded all other schemes combined?

I will remind the Deputy again that this narrow scheme was confined prior to my appointment to the manufacturing and agricultural sectors. I extended it to the service industry, the building and construction industry and the hotel and catering industry. It is mainly because of these extensions that the scheme was so successful last year.

Would the Minister like to give a breakdown of the jobs?

I have already done it in my Estimate speech but I will let the Deputy have the figures.

More than 10,000 jobs were created by the Deputy O'Leary scheme.