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Youth Employment

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I was not fully aware of that, but I have seen references to his constituency, as well as to my own, that highlight the need for such an investment of resources. According to the Construction Employers Federation, that sector in Northern Ireland has had 25,000 jobs lost and a 38% decline in output since 2007, while manufacturing fell by 19% in the same period. In my constituency of South Down, and in the neighbouring seat of the hon. Gentleman, some 1,585 construction workers are claiming unemployment benefit. Such jobs are simply not there for our young people when they leave secondary, further or higher education. I was extremely concerned to read in yesterday’s Financial Times that the Centre for Economics and Business Research expects the situation to get worse and that it predicts that Northern Ireland will have one of the largest increases in youth unemployment as public sector cuts begin to bite. Is the Minister concerned—I have no doubt he is—that the public sector cuts have not had their full impact yet, and that such figures do not suggest that the private sector is waiting to absorb those losses and to employ our young people?