Does the Taoiseach agree that one of the great ironies of the present age is that older citizens are required to work longer simply to make ends meet because half the population do not have any pension provision, while the other half who thought they were the lucky ones have found out that they are not lucky at all after paying tens of thousands of euro into schemes that will be worth nothing? On the other side of the equation, young people across Europe are lying idle. A wasted generation remains unemployed, even at a time when much work needs to be done. It is an indictment of neoliberal capitalism that the youth unemployment rate stands at 50% in a number of countries in Europe. The average rate is 25% and in Ireland one in every three young people is unemployed. That figure would be one in two if the rest of them had not been driven out of the country, leaving their families and communities behind.

By anybody's reckoning, this is a crisis and an emergency. Where is the emergency response? Last week the Taoiseach and his colleagues lauded a €6 billion initiative to tackle youth unemployment. Will this be their European legacy? We wondered whether it was an escapade into black humour. It is proposed to spend €6 billion over seven years for more than 7 million unemployed young people. That works out at less than €1,000 per person and less than €150 per person per year. It would not even pay for one day of a FÁS course. Everybody knows some of our bankers can pull larger amounts out of lower parts of their anatomy in one go. If that was not insulting enough, the Government decided in the same gesture to allocate a sum ten times that amount for the banks. In effect, it is stating the banks are ten times more important than Europe's young people. The banks have already received €1 trillion at nominal interest rates from the ECB. Imagine what could have been done with this money if it had been invested in a programme of public works to improve the physical and social infrastructure of Europe. Instead of introducing schemes for water meters or bullying homeowners, the Government could have repaired the water system. Why does the Government continue to promote policies that condemn young people to a lost generation? Will the Taoiseach assure us that he will not listen to the lunacy of the ESRI and will abandon austerity? Despite all he has said, austerity, clearly, is not working.

That was a good rant in two minutes. The Deputy conducted a fine analysis of her version of neoliberal capitalism. Does she think no one over here recognises the scale of the challenge for Europe, where 26 million people are unemployed? Has she not heard me say on many occasions that no leader in Europe could be proud of this situation? That is why the Irish Presidency shoved these major files across the line into reality. Some €960 billion is being provided by European taxpayers in the next seven years. Between €6 billion and €8 billion will be spent on tackling youth employment. The money will be front-loaded for the first two years and there is agreement on flexibility in reviewing the economic circumstances from 2016 and 2017. It is a fact of life that the unemployment rate among young people is at 60% in Greece and 57% in Spain, with varying figures in other locations. This is the big challenge.

Next week I will be calling a special meeting of the Cabinet to deal with the specific issue of job creation. If we do not deal with that challenge, we will not be able to continue on our current path towards meeting our target of reducing the deficit below 3% by 2015. I have most of the ESRI's report. It endorses the Government's programme and states we must continue to achieve our exit from the bailout programme, bring about growth and investment, create jobs and meet our targets by 2015. The challenge for the Government is getting the balance right. Last Monday I visited Waterford with the Minister for Social Protection, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to deal with one small element of an initiative. The Government has listened to employers who say the tax credit system for employing people from the live register is too cumbersome and full of red tape. We abandoned that system and those who now take on people who have been out of work for 12 months or more will get a direct cash injection of €7,500 and, in respect of people unemployed for two years, a direct cash injection of €10,000.

This affects their cashflow, to their benefit, and reduces numbers on the live register. It also means that those on the live register are seen as a resource, not just as a list of people who draw other taxpayers' money in social welfare benefits. This is an expression of their motivation. If the Deputy wishes to prove the point, let her go and speak to the directors in HiTech which recruited some 60% of 400 employees off the live register because it is a resource of people with competence, ambition, motivation and experience.

Of course, many countries in Europe are in difficulty. That is why we were able to broker negotiations with the United States, why we brokered the negotiations now started with Japan and why we hope to conclude the trade negotiations with Canada. That is also why the decision taken at European Council and Presidency level during the Irish Presidency has greatly enhanced the opportunity to deal with this issue, including the very complex and technical areas in which progress has been made under the chairmanship of the Minister for Finance in respect of VAT issues.

The Taoiseach will have to issue work permits since he is creating so many jobs.

We all know these things. This is not going to be sorted out in one day, but we are heading in the right direction and continue to make progress.

The Taoiseach must have got sunstroke in Killarney at the weekend.

Will Deputies, please, stop mumbling? Will they, please, allow Deputy Clare Daly to speak and respect her right to contribute. We do not want to listen to Deputies mumbling. Will they, please, stay quiet for the Deputy and show some respect to the House?

I suppose the problem the Taoiseach has is one that prevails across the Government, namely, that there is an enormous disconnect between their words and the reality on the ground, the proof people experience. The reality on the ground is that there are fewer people in employment now than there were when the Government came to power. The Taoiseach has told us consistently and reiterated today that the Government's policies will turn the economy around and will result in investment and growth in jobs. He has been proved wrong on this, not in words but in reality in that the economy is moving back into recession. The Government's determination to follow the path of austerity being outlined by the ESRI will only condemn more young people to unemployment because that is not a priority for the ESRI.

Does the Deputy have a question for the Taoiseach?

If the Taoiseach accepts this is an emergency, as he says he does, where is his emergency response?

There is no disconnect between my words and what we know is happening on the ground. In the past 12 months we have had some 16,000 individual start-ups in this country, which shows the motivation and ambition of people to get up and work. There is a churn every month of 36,000 on the live register, which indicates that people move off the live register into the world of work. Unfortunately, however, they are replaced by others.

Much of this is due to emigration.

The unemployment rate has dropped from 14.5% to 13.8%. After the Order of Business today I am going to Naas to turn the sod on a €100 million investment by the Kerry Group which will create thousands of jobs in the coming years in a world-class food innovation centre. This is part of the programme for the agrifood sector which is worth over €9 billion currently. In addition, NexusUCD will employ over 300 highly paid researchers in dealing with the world of enterprise and academia. Therefore, it is not a case of despair and despondency at all times, as suggested by the Deputy. Of course, everybody understands the challenge for the Government is to deal with the scale of unemployment and the high numbers on the live register, but it must also open the doors of opportunity for business, to enable access to credit and jobs to be created. That is the challenge for everybody, but in her comments today the Deputy does not make any real proposal, other than the usual waffle which suggests this problem could be fixed with a magic wand which we do not have. However, the Government is setting out on a path balanced between dealing with the necessity for discipline to get our targets below 3% by 2015 and the creation of jobs. That is the reason the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform introduced two stimulus packages, most recently for 28 additional schools in the capital programme, creating jobs on the ground. These projects involve small contractors, which means people working, confidence and a spend in the local economy. The Deputy may not wish to see this, but it is the reality and we need more of this. I hope next week's Cabinet meeting on job creation will focus on a number of areas, including the construction sector. We hope to be able to create that extra stimulus whereby jobs can be created for men and women all over the country.