Budget 2014 is deeply dishonest. It is littered with broken promises. The programme for Government promised not to cut social welfare rates. The Labour Party claims protecting social welfare is one of its main achievements and is one of its main reasons for being in government. This week this promise has been broken again. Hiding behind the deplorable record of Fianna Fáil really is no defence. The jobseeker's allowance payment for young people has been cut, as has invalidity pension. These are core social welfare payments and they have been cut so the Government has broken its promise. When Fianna Fáil first cut jobseeker's payments for those aged under 25 in 2009 the response of the Labour Party was to state the cut was offensive and intended to promote emigration, and the party, justifiably at the time, accused Fianna Fáil of putting the squeeze on young people and making them pay for the recession. My, how its tune has changed. This morning the Tánaiste's colleague, Deputy Eamonn Maloney, as quoted in today's newspapers, justified these cuts. He wishes to save the young people of Tallaght from watching flat screen televisions seven days a week. The Tánaiste's party colleague blames young people for their unemployment.

Shame.

He accuses them, stating quite openly in his view the young people in Tallaght are too lazy to go out and work. Is it now official Labour Party policy to force young people to emigrate? Is it now official Labour Party policy to make young people pay for the recession? Is it official Labour Party policy to blame young people for being unemployed?

The disappeared come to mind.

It is official Labour Party policy to get young people into jobs and into education and training so they are in a better position to take up employment opportunities. This is official Labour Party policy and it is the policy of the Government.

Tell Labour Youth so.

This is why in the budget we have provided an additional €500 million for employment creation measures. This is why we propose to employ additional teachers in our classrooms, and additional gardaí will be recruited for the first time in many years.

When?

It is why we have provided €740 million in the budget for further education and training-----

It has been cut.

Third level has been cut by €25 million.

-----so young people can get the education and training to equip them to get into the workplace.

The place for any young person is not permanently in front of a flat screen television. It is at work or in education and training. This is where they get the best start in life.

In Canada.

The Government does not blame young people for being unemployed. It wants to help young people to get out of unemployment and into employment.

Hear, hear.

Every study and examination shows one has a better chance of getting a job-----

By cutting social welfare?

-----the higher the level of skills and level of education one has. This is why we have ensured in the budget the school system and the pupil-teacher ratio are protected, so young people get the best possible opportunity while they are still at school, and it is why we have put a focus on activation and using the education and training system to get people into a position where they are in employment. It is jobs we want for young people-----

We have 3,000 jobs a month.

We want good, well-paid jobs for which they have appropriate education and training. This is why we have made, and are making, the changes in our social welfare system, our education and training system and the jobs action plan, so we have a joined-up approach to getting people into employment and providing education and training for them.

To get young people into work one must create real decent jobs.

We do. We create 3,000 a month.

Cutting the safety net for young people and whipping the rug from under them does not get them back into employment. I beg to differ with Deputy Maloney and the Tánaiste. I do not believe young jobless people-----

This is for questions.

-----spend hours in front of flat screen televisions in Tallaght or anywhere else. The Tánaiste spoke about activation measures. A total of 54,000 young people are officially out of work, which is 18,000 more than when the Government took office. The official youth unemployment rate is 30% and many are not captured in this figure.

A question please.

It is £65 a week in the North.

Budget 2014 promises a paltry 4,500 additional places for these young people. Last year the Government promised a paltry 10,000 places and only delivered 5,000. This is the record in terms of activation for the young, so the Tánaiste should not come in here and spoof.

I would like to hear Deputy's supplementary question.

When Fianna Fáil cut jobseeker's allowance in 2009 it also claimed it would have training interventions but they did not materialise. The Labour Party was quick to point it out then, but the same is true today. People need jobs and proper labour activation but the Government is asleep at the wheel. It is failing our young people, and cutting their welfare, the only modest support for them and their families, will leave many with no option but to emigrate. This is official Labour Party policy.

I ask the Deputy to put her question.

Why is the Government forcing our young from this State to Sydney, Brisbane, Boston and beyond? It strikes me this is official Labour Party policy just like Fianna Fáil's before it. I ask the Tánaiste to answer this. Why is the Government making young people pay for the recession?

They would have a witness protection scheme with Sinn Féin.

First, let us spare a moment to take a look at Sinn Féin policy, because in 2011, after this recession began, its leader said the IMF should go home and take its money with it, and he suggested we should default.

So did the Tánaiste.

Please allow the Tánaiste to reply.

In order-----

On a point of order-----

No; take your medicine now. Take your medicine.

On a point of order-----

Will you sit down, Deputy? Sit down.

Sit down, Mattie.

Leave the medicine alone.

He tells us to take our medicine. The ones who need it are the sick ones.

What that would have resulted in is a deficit of €21 billion, and we would not have been able to borrow.

Frankfurt's way or Labour's way.

Defend the cuts. He cannot defend his cuts.

A deficit of €21 billion would have resulted in cuts in the budget of 37%.

Nonsense.

A 37% cut in the budget-----

They put €65 billion into the banks and they ask young people to-----

A 37% cut in the budget------

They have sold their principles to the highest bidder.

Would you all please stay quiet?

A 37% cut in the budget amounts to a cut of €85 a week in the old age pension. Let us cut out the spoof here.

They are the ones in government.

In regard to the issue of jobs for young people-----

Do not blame the young people and everybody else. The Tánaiste is the one who is in government.

Would you please stay quiet? Thank you.

In regard to young people, this Government is creating 3,000 additional jobs per month.

In Australia and Canada.

We want to accelerate that, which is why we have provided an additional €500 million in this year's budget - in order to get more jobs into our economy.

Think of all of those who have emigrated.

They emigrated because of you.

They are in Canada.

Second, we want to see young people in employment or in education and training. That is why we reached agreement on the youth guarantee, the idea behind which is that no young person should be more than eight months either out of the labour force or out of education and training. We have provided-----

They will be out of the country.

Tell us about jobs in Tallaght then.

We have provided the funding in this budget to enable that youth guarantee to be started and to be put into operation.

Thank you, Tánaiste.

The position of the Government in regard to young people is this: employment, or education and training.

It is emigration, emigration and emigration.

Before I call on Deputy Clare Daly, I suggest that those who are constant hecklers take the morning off some morning and go and watch television, and see what it sounds like on television when they are listening to the roaring and shouting.

A lot of people made a lot of sacrifices so we could come into this Chamber and debate, not shout each other down. Would you give the speaker a chance to ask a question and listen to the answer? You may not like the question or you may not like the answer, but that is democracy, by the way. I call Deputy Clare Daly.

To be fair to Sinn Féin, they spent a lot of time out of this House so they are making up for lost time.

What about the Tánaiste? He might go out of this himself.

Sinn Féin are all right. They are taking enough of the Queen's shillings.

Would you all please stop heckling and stay quiet? I call Deputy Clare Daly. Sinn Féin should learn to be quiet as well as everybody else.