Mr. James Doorley:

I mentioned what was happening in Sweden. The Nordic countries have had a kind of youth guarantee scheme in place since the 1980s. The idea is that young people are not allowed to drift into long-term unemployment. The studies show that Sweden invests approximately €6,000 per young person covered by the youth guarantee. There is a figure of about €600 which covers administration costs, counselling costs, etc. The scheme has proved quite successful. The figures show that by investing money upfront, even after just 12 months in a job the investment is paid back. We acknowledge, however, that Ireland is not Sweden. We need to take the best from Sweden, while acknowledging that our social welfare and education systems are very different. I attended a seminar that Senator Reilly had organised in Cavan at which a speaker from Sweden was quite critical of some elements of the Swedish project, which is not perfect. If we implement a youth guarantee, it will not be perfect and will have problems. However, we should aim for the best. The figure of €6,600 is an indicator of the investment needed in order to make the guarantee work in practice. That is how we came up with the figure of €273 million. We acknowledge that we will not go from nothing in 2013 to €273 million or €300 million in year one. In practical terms, we need to have phased implementation, even if the money were available, which it is not. The Budget Statement referred to the figure of €14 million as an initial allocation. It certainly needs to be considerably more than this. Given the potential for the Government to get the money from European Commission funds - the €6 billion that needs to be spent in 2014 and 2015 - there is a great opportunity. If we get the right model for a youth guarantee, we will get a fair chunk of money in support. If we only invest €50 million, we will only receive 66% of that sum. Therefore, would make sense in the long run, apart from the need to address the issue.