Mr. Joe O'Connor:

We would agree with many of Senator Reilly's comments on the youth guarantee. Deputy Griffin made reference to the role of the universities and institutes of technology and as I said earlier, they have an enormous role to play in terms of transitions. On page 18 of our submission, we have outlined issues such as a national skills initiative and employability skills initiative, which are very important in this context.

In response to the point made by departmental representatives earlier, namely the idea that job-creation initiatives will fall out of the national action plan for jobs rather than a specific programme or initiative tailored for young people, reports over the last 12 months would suggest that the Tánaiste has been working with the OECD on a Europe-wide jobs strategy for young people and how that could be implemented in Ireland. We have heard a lot in recent weeks about how the best place for young people is in work, education or training, which we genuinely believe and agree with. However, if we are serious about that and are willing to cut social welfare payments to people under 26, as has been done with the Social Welfare Bill, then we must also be serious about developing specific programmes to ensure that workplace education and training places are made available to young people.