Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have developed over a period of time the idea of a youth guarantee. The level of youth unemployment in this country and in a number of other European countries is too high and we want to get it down. We will get it down by creating employment, by providing work experience opportunities and by providing the education and training that equips young people to get into employment. We reached agreement on a youth guarantee under the chairmanship of my colleague, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, at the European Social Affairs Council last February. In the course of negotiating the European budget last summer, we reached agreement on the provision of €6 billion initially, and it ended up being about €8 billion in funding for that initiative. We front-loaded that initiative to 2014 and 2015 and, in this budget, we are making provision for matching funding for that youth guarantee so we can provide employment opportunities for young people.

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