The Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has said that its extraordinary that young people aged under 35 are experiencing a second recession.
Speaking in the Dail, Varadkar said he is fully aware of the effects that the pandemic has had on young people and he stated that he very much doesn’t want to see a scenario were young people turn to emigration similar to that of what happened ten years ago.
Varadkar was responding to questioning from Labour’s Aodhan O Riordain, who told the Dail that youth unemployment is currently at 59 % and for every five young adults three of them are unemployed.
In response to O Riordain’s remarks the Tanaiste said that we are in situation were we need to make sure that we don’t face a scenario where young people are forced to look abroad for opportunities.
Varadkar stated that the Government is looking to address the issue and are focusing on a number of areas including opportunities in education, apprenticeships and offering better pay and conditions to those young people who get their jobs back once the economy is back up and running.
However the Varadkar’s response didn’t go down well with the Labour TD who struck back with a stern response referencing the Tanaiste’s Twitter account in which he has allegedly spoken more about Sinn Fein than youth unemployment since the beginning of 2021.
O Riordain told that the Dail that he single handedly counted the amount of times the Tanaiste has mentioned youth unemployment and the amount of times he mentioned Sinn Fein.
The Labour TD went on to state that the total mentions of youth unemployment amounted to the grand total of zero, whilst the amount of times the Tanaiste has mentioned Sinn Fein on the social media platform since January currently stands at twelve.
He added that if he was a young person he would come to he conclusion that the Tanaiste is not obsessed with youth unemployment and getting people jobs and therefore saving a generation, but his obsession is with engaging in a political game with Sinn Fein.
However O Riordain’s comments were quickly rebuffed by the Tanaiste who accused the Labour TD of issuing a cheap shot and portraying himself to people that he is better than he is and cares more than he does.
He added that O Riordain’s tactics were virtue signaling and cheap politics.
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