Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Lyons. I am well aware of the Deputy's interest in the youth area in general and specifically in youth unemployment and the youth guarantee. I know the Deputy has a particularly keen interest in the Ballymun pilot project. Clearly, the evidence suggest focused interventions such as this do work. I agree it is worth paying for them. We have to focus the resources we have on that cohort in society. It is absolutely crucial for many reasons. The funding has to be proportionate to the need.

There are some EU member states that are better placed to afford the additional investment than others. The message needs to clearly go out from the EU that there is support available and that support should be made available because we cannot afford a situation in the EU or anywhere else where we leave a generation behind. The youth guarantee is supposed to be a dramatic intervention in the lives of young people who are without work and training opportunities. I will be travelling to the EPSCO meeting with Minister of State at the Department of Social Protection, Deputy Kevin Humphreys. Deputy Humphreys has a deep interest in this area and I think it would be appropriate that he would deal with that aspect of it while I deal with the employment side. I will certainly relay that message back to him. I am very much on board with communicating that the youth guarantee needs to be properly resourced, both to the Commission and at the EPSCO meeting.