In my Ard-Fheis speech I stated that "the greatest challenge we face in the nineties — the one that will show if we succeed as a society — is to create jobs here at home for all our young people who want to work in Ireland". As the House is aware, the Government are undertaking a number of initiatives to promote job creation in addition to measures already taken such as the Task Force on Employment, which combines the views of the social partners, Government Departments and the commercial State bodies.
The new initiatives include: the ministerial committee chaired by myself and the complementary task force to implement the Culliton report so that all obstacles to the creation of more jobs in industry and services are removed and all necessary measures to accelerate the provision of such jobs are speedily taken; and the Task Force on Tourism, which is now in operation, with the special remit to increase employment in tourism, which has unique potential for the emloyment of young people.
In addition, we have negotiated the details of the new employment and training schemes with the European Commission, which, over twelve months, will provide employment or training for 25,000 persons who are on the Live Register for at least two months. Young people, who represent 23 per cent of the Live Register, will greatly benefit from these schemes.
The Government's most recent initiative has been to propose the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Employment, which should be seen as a major initiative to harness the ideas of all political parties in providing employment for young people.
All Government Departments have been asked to bring forward new ideas or proposals for the creation of sustainable jobs.