Elements of today's jobs initiative have been sharply criticised by the Government's political opponents.
Fianna Fail's Willie O'Dea said in the Dáil that while he welcomed any plan which tackles the unemployment problem, he said the plan was 'minimalist'.
Mr O'Dea was standing in for his party's finance spokesman Brian Lenihan.
He said he was 'bemused' at the fact that a levy on private pensions will be pay for the measures announced today.
He said the move was very unfair and described it as the biggest smash and grab raid since Nero.
He also said he didn't know who many more people will take out private pensions from now on as a result of today's announcement.
Mr O'Dea also said the €50 to be given to those who take part in the new intern scheme 'doesn't go far enough'.
Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty said there was 'a better way, a different way.
'This is not even a drop in the ocean for what is needed.'
Mr Doherty also said hundreds of thousands of people across the country would be deeply disappointed and said the Government should have done more.
Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy sharply criticised the initiative.
The proposals on labour activation, he said, 'amount to nothing more than an attempt to drive the unemployed into a modern day form of slavery and exploitation'.
'This carrot-and-stick approach - carrots for the employers and a stick to beat workers and the unemployed with - will not create real jobs but will be used to drive down the conditions and pay of those currently in work.
'Why would any employer pay decent wages when they can take on what is in reality, state-sponsored free labour instead?'
In a statement, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said his party questioned the absence of specific figures for jobs to be created.
'The supporting economic documents for the Initiative show that the government has not projected any net impact on employment from the measures,' Mr Martin said.
He questioned whether measures already in place were being included as part of today's initiative, and said 'Today's package taken as a whole will add little in terms of net job creation and represents a missed opportunity.'
Fianna Fáil's spokesman on Public Expenditure and Financial Sector Reform Michael McGrath said that thousands of existing pensioners would have their pensions reduced as a result of the pension fund levy.
