Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I note the publication of the latest FÁS quarterly labour market review for autumn 2009, published last Wednesday. It highlights the increase which has occurred in youth unemployment as evidenced by the latest quarterly national household survey, QNHS, and live register statistics.

According to the QNHS at the end of the second quarter the unemployment rate for the age group 20-24 years of age stood at 23%, an increase of 12.6% on 2008. The percentage and the number of people in this cohort has increased but there has been a fall in the participation rate by 2.4%. The recent October live register statistics show that 84,948 people under 25 are signing on, which is a decrease of 4,862 from September.

The report suggested that many people of these age groups have continued to stay in education, as a fall in labour force participation rates has occurred. Whereas the creation of new sustainable employment opportunities for individuals through attracting investment to Ireland and supporting our indigenous enterprise base is the best way to tackle unemployment, my Department through FÁS is also actively working to ensure increased accessibility to the range of services and supports for all individual jobseekers, including those who are under 25 years of age. We have, for example, almost doubled the national employment action plan referral capacity of the FÁS and local employment services to 147,000 places.

In addition, the number of activation training and work experience places provided through FÁS has doubled to more than 130,000. This is clearly a substantial increase on the 66,000 places which were available at the end of last year. At the end of September, 104,000 unemployed were participating or had completed FÁS training or employment programmes. Those under 25 years of age are accessing both the job search services and training and work experience programmes in significant numbers.

The main specific FÁS provision for early school leavers continues to be training at community training centres under the Youthreach programme. There are 2,300 places on the programme, which is directed at unemployed early school leavers between the ages of 15 and 20. The programme provides basic skills and work experience and gives early school leavers an opportunity to acquire certification and progress to further training or employment.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

Another initiative that strives to prepare the unemployed for future job opportunities is the work placement programme. This programme is aimed at providing 2,000 six-month work experience placements to young people, graduates and other unemployed people. The programme consists of two streams, each consisting of 1,000 places. The first stream is for graduates and the second stream is for all others, with 250 places ring-fenced for those under the age of 25. As uptake on the scheme has been slower than anticipated, we have just concluded a review of its operation. I intend to announce revised criteria for its application shortly. I can also confirm to the House that FÁS is developing a youth framework. The FÁS youth framework will succinctly draw together FÁS commitment to young people. The target group for the FÁS youth framework is young people, aged between 16 and 25 years. It will detail in a comprehensive way all programmes and initiatives available to this target group including access and progression options. Monitoring procedures and an evaluation process will form part of the framework to measure the effectiveness of services. A working group has been established and work is due to commence on the framework shortly.

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