There are over 423,000 people across the country currently claiming unemployment benefit, putting our jobless rate at 14.6%.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny's making tackling that figure one of his top priorities for the New Year, with a special cabinet meeting to be held before the end of this month.

He wants to know what each minister's got in the pipeline at their department to play their part, and he says it's not simply the responsibility of the Jobs Minister. 

The meeting will focus in particular on the domestic economy, with its small and medium enterprises.

The Fine Gael/Labour coalition now has 3 years to meet its target of creating 100,000 new jobs by the end of its term in office.

Ireland holds the EU Presidency for the next 6 months and at Monday's flag-raising ceremony the Taoiseach said he wanted to deliver "solutions" to a range of issues including that of unemployment.