Thousands of those awaiting Leaving Cert results could be left in limbo by the Government's failure to create employment opportunities and provide adequate training options, it was claimed today.
Labour Youth said those not planning to attend college had little to look forward to and faced two major choices - joining the dole queue or emigrating.
"Tomorrow should be a very happy day for leaving cert students but it won't be due to lack of opportunity," Labour Youth chair Rory Geraghty said during a protest outside the Dáil this afternoon.
According to the Central Statistics Office some 92,000 people aged under 25 were unemployed at the end of June. A further 60,000 students will receive their Leaving Cert results tomorrow.
Mr Geraghty said, amid rising unemployment and a surge in the numbers returning to college, it was unacceptable that the budget for the Department of Education and Science had been scaled back. He said Government claims that it was attempting to tackle unemployment and retrain those on the live register were "tokenistic".
"The Government needs to put the jobs crisis at the centre of its economic plan. They need to invest money in job creation, reverse cuts at the Department of Education and make sure there is training available for those who need it," he said.
"We put €22billion into Anglo Irish, if even a tenth of that went into job creation thousands of people would be in employment."
Labour Youth said it would like the Government to commit to using a minimum of €2 billion from the National Pension Reserve Fund to fund job creation programmes.
This could be used to improve broadband infrastructure, fund city regeneration projects, and for creating social and community work jobs, Mr Geraghty said.
