asked the Taoiseach if he will outline the results to date of the Cabinet Task Force on Employment, of which he is chairman.

The activities of the Cabinet Task Force on Employment are internal arrangements made by Ministers for discussion among themselves. As such it would not be in accordance with long-standing practice to itemise the results to date of the Task Force's work.

From time to time specific measures will be implemented on the basis of decisions reached by Government that have been proposed by the Task Force. Such measures—for example, those to increase work opportunities referred to in the Government statement of 21 July 1983—normally emerge as part of the ongoing work of Government.

Can the Taoiseach tell us whether this rather quaint idea, the Employment Task Force of the Government, meets regularly? Is it still meeting and, if so, is there anything specific at this stage which has emerged from the meetings of this task force of which the Taoiseach is chairman?

The answer to the first two questions is yes. The answer to the third question has been given already in my reply where I referred to decisions announced in the Government statement of 21 July.

Does the Taoiseach really believe that the following, which I understand was the total package dealt with after Barrettstown in July — a pilot job sharing scheme in the public service, measures to overcome obstacles to voluntary work and the streamlining of the placement services in the National Manpower Service — justify the name of an employment task force?

If that were all the task force did, no. Those are the first fruits of its work. It is meeting at present and examining other proposals which will emerge in due course through the normal process of Government decision making.

Obviously I am not going to find out much about this very interesting new development in the Government's paraphernalia, a task force chaired by the Taoiseach which is apparently devoting itself to the problem of unemployment. Would the Taoiseach not think that the unemployment figures at the moment are so disastrous that the whole Government should constitute themselves into an employment task force?

They are the priority of the Government. By constituting a task force of this kind of the relevant Ministers, an additional impetus can be given to the work of the Government who have to concern themselves with matters other than this most primary issue of unemployment. Many other Government decisions are required. To have a body which can concentrate exclusively on this subject and make recommendations for action to the Government for actions which have been pre-prepared by the key Ministers in question is a useful innovation and is so proving itself.

One final supplementary on this.

We are at the argument stage now.

No. Will the Taoiseach accept that, since this Government took office and since this employment task force under his chairmanship was established, unemployment has risen by 23,000, seasonally adjusted to 26,000, and that the 200,000 figure has almost been arrived at? Would he not think that those figures in themselves would prove conclusively to the impartial observer that this employment task force which he has the honour to chair is a joke and is doing nothing?

Nothing to diminish the magnitude of the appalling character and distress caused by unemployment which is a major problem we face. Nonetheless, it is a fact that, over the past six months, the rate of increase in unemployment has been around half what it was during 1982, when the Deputy was Taoiseach.

The Taoiseach should come to Cork and we will tell him otherwise.

I do not want to make much out of that because frankly these trends are not susceptible to short-term Government action. I do not claim for a moment that the slowing down over this period is the result to any significant degree of actions of this Government or will necessarily continue in the same way. Factually the situation is as I have stated it. It is the primary objective of this Government to deal with it. We are hamstrung by the situation we have inherited, by the accumulation of debt and repayments and by the levels to which taxation has been forced in order to keep up with the increase in expenditure under our predecessors, which increased from 36 per cent of GNP to 50 per cent of GNP in five years. The burden of interest payments and capital repayments, and the burden of taxation required to cope with them make it impossible for the Government to tackle as effectively as any Government would wish to do the problem of unemployment. We have to face that fact. We have to tackle it as best we can, but with our hands tied behind our backs by five years of mismanagement.

Order.