Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The position taken by the Government regarding young people is an unusual one for any state to take given one would think all governments would have an eye on the future. The manner in which young people are being dealt with in this State does not show the Government has an eye to the future. They are faced with unemployment, under employment and insecure employment. If anything else, the crisis has been an opportunity for some people to undermine employment conditions that were built up over the years. It is easier to hire and fire people and wages have been driven down. There is a serious lack of opportunity for young people to work given the dramatic falls in consumption and investment. It is unusual that youth unemployment has been so severe during this recession but austerity has a greater impact on young people than on those who are older, which is peculiar.

Training schemes and apprenticeships are a good idea but they should not be used to drive down wages for others or to replace jobs with decent wages. Given that all the young people who cannot get work are expected to pick up €100 a week on social welfare or €150 a week on the JobBridge scheme, their choice is emigration, if they are not in education or training, or poverty. When the country recovers, this will leave a mark for a long time. We will experience the effects of what the Government is doing to this generation in ten years' time.

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