Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the delegation from Eurofound. In the work I have done on youth unemployment and the Youth Guarantee, I have relied extensively on the research conducted by Eurofound. It is working on how the Youth Guarantee is implemented in member states. In Ireland, funding for the programme will be front-loaded for 2014 and 2015 but no evaluation of its effectiveness will take place until the end of 2015. There is the danger that by the time issues or problems are identified, the money will already have been spent. When will Eurofound’s research on this programme be published? What variables and indicators is it using in its assessment? The Ballymun pilot is under way and it will be evaluated. However, there are concerns as to how this will transfer from an urban area which has much infrastructure and cross-agency co-operation to a rural area which might not traditionally have those structures and supports.