Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the important issue of youth unemployment. While I accept that there are still far too many young people out of work in Ireland, it is clear that we are heading in the right direction in reducing the numbers on the live register. Employment grew last year by 34,000 and, on average, 3,000 jobs are now being created a month. That is clear evidence that progress is being made. I have listened to Sinn Féin and others in the Opposition repeatedly ridicule the effectiveness of employment activation schemes such as JobBridge. This is very disappointing because we should be trying to encourage young people who are out of work to engage in schemes such as these.

Earlier this year, as part of the Government's Momentum initiative, the WebActivate programme was launched in County Monaghan. I was genuinely delighted by the huge level of interest expressed locally by young people in taking part. It is an excellent programme which lasts for eight months and, when completed, jobseekers will be skilled in web publishing and digital marketing and have other web-based skills. I know that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, met those taking part in the programme when she visited County Monaghan earlier this year. I know that the scheme works because I was speaking to a young man only yesterday who had gained employment as a result of the initiative.

In the area of labour activation I would like to see steps being taken to incentivise employers to take on young people in an apprenticeship role. There are still young people who do not want to go on to further education when they complete the leaving certificate examination and the danger is that they will enter a cycle of relying on social welfare which can be very difficult to escape. If young people could be allowed to retain a payment for their first year in work under an apprenticeship scheme and thereafter State support could be reduced incrementally, this would help to encourage young people to take up employment and avail of training, which would help to foster a work ethic. It is good for a young person's mental health to get out to work and learn new skills. Under such a system, local employers would liaise with local schools and identify either early school leavers or those whowould not progress to third level education and provide opportunities through an apprenticeship programme in order that they could be supported before they became unemployed. While I welcome the JobsPlus scheme as an incentive for employers, we need a scheme specifically targeted to make it attractive for businesses to take on young people at risk of falling into the NEETs category; not in employment, not in education and not in training. There are some very bright young people who do not want to progress to third level education and it is important that they be supported. This idea was brought to me by a very progressive and successful local businessman in Cootehill, Mr. John Foy, who employs 50 people in his supermarket and is also the chairman of RGDATA. That is what we need. We need joined-up thinking with business people to create a range of job and training opportunities for young people.

I welcome the progress that is being made in the area of youth unemployment. I commend the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton on the good work she is doing on labour activation and I ask her to take on board my points regarding an incentivised scheme specifically to support businesses to employ young people who are at risk at an early age of becoming long-term unemployed.

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