Would the Minister indicate if he or the Government have discovered the underlying cause of the present huge unemployment figures and if they have pinpointed where growth is likely to occur in the creation of jobs to provide employment for those who are without it at present?

The Deputy's supplementary question is a broad one and, in order to do justice to the spirit in which it was asked would require a long reply. The causes are multiple. We are the most open trading economy of any in the EEC on which we depend and to which we sell 50 per cent of our gross product, more than any other country. That is a major factor. We are much at the mercy of fluctuations in world trade. There are other factors of the impact that an open economy must endure in relation to competition from other EEC countries and third party countries. The Government through the Government Task Force on Employment, the National Planning Board and the various studies to which reference has been made already in this House are attempting to do that. I am not trying to forestall the Deputy, but this House will have an opportunity, as it has had in the past, to attempt to answer what is a complex question.