Vol. 434 No. 4
42 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Finance his views on the high levels of unemployment in this country as compared to other EC States; if he has any plans to improve the situation within the next 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I am aware that Ireland has the second highest unemployment rate in the Community, the highest being for Spain. While all EC member states experienced increases in unemployment because of the downturn in the world economy, Ireland has also been subject to exceptional demographic pressure which is a major contributor to the increases here over the past three years or so.
With regard to plans to improve the employment situation in the coming year, I intend to continue to maintain the macroeconomic and fiscal strategy of recent years. This, together with ongoing structural reforms, is crucial for investment and long-term growth which in turn is essential for sustainable employment growth. As in my previous budgets, this was the central element in this year's budget and developments in the economy since the end of February have vindicated my budgetary strategy. In contrast to most EC member states where employment is falling, employment in Ireland is holding up well. A clear indication of this is that employment-related revenues for the first three quarters of this year were well up on the outturn for the comparable period in 1992. Furthermore, the trend in unemployment has slowed considerably with the end-September seasonally adjusted total only 1,000 higher than at end-November 1992.
