Mr. Ivailo Kalfin:

I thank the Deputy for the very good questions. Everything we do must have a result and that is what motivates all of us in working from different angles in different institutions. We are trying to contribute to some positive movement.

The Deputy is absolutely correct that speaking to a marginalised young person about NEETs, ALMA and Erasmus+ may not make sense. We need the policymakers to know the position. When we measure the percentage of needs of young people, it may not be to tell those marginalised young people their needs; that might be perceived as something offensive. This should be for policymakers and we see very clear problems and issues. In many countries they are addressed.

In other countries, they are much less so. What we can bring as an additional measure is to exchange good and bad experience across the European Union and see how each country deals with that. To deal with the problems of marginalised young people, you need the education system and the health system. You need a number of national systems, in particular, that have to engage and target these problems. This is very much away from the competencies of the European Union. Of course, the European Union could help with all these problems, including with the support to mitigate unemployment risks in an emergency, SURE, instrument because it very much attenuated the impact on employment with Covid-19, allowing member states to be a little bit more generous in terms of supporting closing businesses, etc. This was very important for young people. This is a very efficient measure, but it is only one measure. Solving this issue and bringing these people towards active work in the community needs much more than that. By the way, the percentage of needs in Ireland today is a little above the average European Union. The average European Union is 14%. It was 16.1% two years ago. In Ireland it is 14.1%. That is exactly European Union average. Across Europe this is 10 million people. In Ireland, as you can imagine, 14% is quite a substantial percentage. Two thirds of them are, as you say, people who are not interested and they do not go to the labour office. They do not seek jobs. Now they have some other opportunities, and this is also an area for research. They can go to the green economy. Some of them go to what they call the "platform economy" or the gig economy. They can deliver food or something like that, but unfortunately, it is very often without working conditions. It is unpaid work with no breaks and no regulation at all. They find ways to make their lives, which are in the grey area, which is not regulated and which we do not see. We need to shed a light on these problems. There is enough information. There are some instruments that would come from the European level but, in most cases, this is national policy, because you need to engage all these massive systems in order to address these people.