Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

The announcement of the labour activation fund was accompanied by great fanfare when it was announced by the Minister last March. At that time we were told it would go a long way towards redressing our grave concerns about the number of people unemployed and in particular, the number of young people who have been forced to join the live register. It was envisaged that this fund would provide myriad schemes to enable young people and others to avail of opportunities for reskilling and upskilling. Unemployment is currently at record levels with more than 450,000 people on the live register, most of whom are young people. The most recent live register figures issued show there has been a slight decline in the number of people signing on. However, we all know through interaction with friends, family and neighbours and in our constituencies, that young people graduating from school and university are opting to leave the country in search of better opportunities overseas.

It is clear that the State needs to take action and this fund was to provide some hope and some significant investment in people who have been unfortunate to find themselves out of work so they will be better placed to gain employment in the future. In response to my recent parliamentary question the Minister confirmed that €32 million has been allocated to the labour market activation fund but to date, only €8.4 million has been drawn down. Considering the urgent need to re-educate people and to retrain and upskill people for economic activities in other sectors which have prospects for the future, this is very disappointing.

In my first parliamentary question to the Minister a number of weeks ago he was unable to give me any figures regarding the number of people who have benefited from the scheme but, miraculously, I have received a reply as a result of tabling this Adjournment matter. However, it is still extremely unclear and I hope the Minister in his response will be able to shed some light on the numbers of people whom it is envisaged will benefit from this scheme, how many have benefited to date and how many have benefited from further education placements and reskilling and retraining.

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