Dan Keenan

"Ireland is in a different place from the one two years ago… We have taken and implemented difficult decisions, but it is working, the Tánaiste has said.

Speaking at the formal launch at Government Buildings of the latest OECD report on Ireland, Mr Gilmore presented an upbeat picture of Ireland's economic prospects for the year ahead. But he also insisted the Government wanted "to ensure that we are doing everything that could be done to meet the challenge of youth unemployment" which he described as "one of the gravest and most intractable difficulties facing our young people and our society as a whole".

Mr Gilmore said 2012 witnessed a second successive year of growth and he greeted “at last some positive signs on the labour market” and forecast that there will be a successful exit from the EU/IMF programme later this year.

“There are some significant challenges facing us, but Ireland is emerging from the crisis,” he said.

The Government and the OECD are working on what he called “a study of the key challenges facing Ireland with respect to youth unemployment and inactivity”. He said this work would assess areas in the delivery of unemployment and training services “where particular efforts may be needed to increase capacity and effectiveness”.

He concluded: “lastly, they will work on a review of possible programmes and measures that could be expanded or scaled up, drawing on the evidence of the effectiveness of these different measures both in Ireland and other relevant countries.”