Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

An Teachta Adams referred to the ongoing EU budget negotiations. I wish the Government well in the delicate negotiations. I wish to refer specifically to youth unemployment and the proposed youth guarantee. More than 5.5 million young people across the EU are not able to find work currently. Across the European Union, 22% of people between the ages of 15 and 24 are jobless, a figure that swells to as much as 50% in Greece and Spain. Long-term youth unemployment reveals an even starker reality: more than 30% of young people have been unemployed for more than 12 consecutive months.

The CSO released figures last week which show that the number of young people on the live register in the State has risen from December to January by 1,420. A staggering 68, 944 young people are now signing on. The figure does not include the many thousands who have emigrated in recent months. Many young people now see emigration as the only option open to them. There is a responsibility on us all to respond, but even more so on the Government to ensure that deliberate and determined interventions are put in place to give young people choices and, more importantly, hope.

I mentioned in the context of the European Investment Bank the importance of establishing a youth employment fund. It appears that the position of the European Commission is that no extra money will be made available for youth unemployment or a youth guarantee. In addition to talking about the issue, it is clear that there is a need for action. More funding must be provided to tackle the issue. The International Labour Organization called for the establishment of a €21 billion action fund. I call on the Tánaiste to make clear the Government’s support for such a measure in the negotiations. The State must also provide funding to combat youth unemployment.

The National Youth Council called for an investment fund of €300 million, an investment initiative to provide for young people who are long-term unemployed, particularly those coming from areas of high deprivation.

The youth jobs guarantee aims to ensue that member states guarantee every young person under the age of 25 a job, training or education placement within a set number of months of becoming unemployed. Sinn Féin recently met representatives of the National Youth Council of Ireland. While welcoming support for a youth jobs guarantee, it again raised a number of concerns about it. The evaluation of the youth guarantee schemes implemented in Sweden and Finland indicate that they have reduced youth unemployment and inactivity. However, they were found to be more effective for young people who were new to the labour market than to those who were long-term unemployed. Yesterday one of the committees met Swedish representatives and we talked about the issue of youth unemployment. We get a sense from many groups which come before committees that there is no sense of difficulties faced by many countries across Europe and there does not seem to be any urgency to address them. I assume that reflects back on many of the countries involved in these negotiations. There is a need to up the ante on this issue. Will the issue of youth unemployment be discussed at the European Council?

A meeting of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council is to be held in Dublin this Thursday and Friday. Is the Government aware of these concerns ahead of that meeting? Will the Government include additional measures to support young people who are long-term unemployed to avoid the weaknesses identified in the schemes implemented in Sweden and Finland? Additionally, young workers can often only access precarious, temporary jobs or traineeships which offer little prospect of career progression. We know of the difficulty many young people who get temporary jobs face in terms of the rigmarole of trying to secure jobseeker's benefit or other benefits. Changes in this area need to be made not only in this State but in other EU member states.

Will the Government ensure that any youth jobs guarantee will be resourced to ensure that there is sufficient high quality education, training and job experience places and the staff to provide intensive job counselling and guidance? Will the Government lobby during EU budget negotiations to ensure it is resourced sufficiently and adequately to address the huge task involved?

In regard to EU Aid, Britain, Germany, Holland and Sweden are reportedly proposing a major cut in aid in the EU budget. This is on top of President Van Rompuy's proposal in November of an 11% cut in EDF funding, compared with the figures put forward by the Commission. Other budget lines face cuts of 7.5% on average. European NGOs fear even steeper cuts and believe that the EU could end up spending less in 2020 than it did in 2007 on its partners in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Aid cuts would most likely ensure that European countries will fall short of achieving their internationally agreed targets for halving the number of people in absolute poverty under the millennium development goals for 2015. Will the Government fight against the proposed disproportional cuts to the EU aid budget which will have a negative impact on some of the poorest people in the world? Does the Government agree that to keep cutting the EU aid budget will hurt the EU's foreign affairs and trade interests in the long run?

The Taoiseach mentioned the situation in Mali. We have seen EU member states intervene in Mali recently. The European Union has also firmed up plans to set up a 450-strong military mission to train the Malian army. Has the Minister, Deputy Shatter, brought a request to Cabinet on this matter and has a decision been made? The Tánaiste might inform us on that. While there are plans to send African Union troops there as soon as possible and there has been little resistance so far, caution should be urged and there is need to highlight the potential problematic and disastrous affect intervention in the region may have in the long run.

Instability in the Sahel region can be directly linked to the intervention in Libya. After the overthrow of Gadaffi, displaced tribes returned to their historic homelands and are demanding separatist rights for their states in that area. That has not gone away with European intervention and it will not go away with African Union intervention. I urge the EU to look beyond its immediate action of sending a military training force to Mali later this month, and wonder will the EU show the same interest and urgency for the future development of Sahel for the benefit of the ordinary people who live there.

While the EU and Economic Community of West African States are pushing ahead with their plans to send more troops to the region and to hold elections by 31 July, what plans are there to listen to what the people in northern Mali want? What plans does the EU have to address the rampant corruption of the central government? What plans are in place to stop another coup? This does not appear to be what is being discussed. There is only talk of radical Islamist forces and the threat to Europe. Will the Tánaiste raise the real needs of the ordinary people who live in Mali when discussing the issue with his colleagues?

There was no mention of the problem in Syria and there has been the recent intervention of Israeli forces in relation to that conflict. The situation there seems to be getting worse rather than better.

See this speech in context