Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Your idea for a 22 year old may be for them to be on social welfare. It is not my ambition. My ambition is to have people working and that is why we will have a flow of places. We expect that about 14,000 young people will be affected by this measure over the next year. Youth unemployment has been falling for a number of distinct reasons. First of all, there were fewer births in 1994 and 1995. Deputies can check this with the CSO because it has the data. The second thing is that the number of young people in work is stabilising and rising so the level of youth unemployment is falling. We need to come together as a Chamber and country to get all our young people back to work.

I want this to go out as a challenge to employers because they are critical in terms of getting young people back to work. From 1 January 2014, any employer who takes on a young person who is more than six months unemployed will qualify for a monthly cash subsidy of €300. I expect and want Deputies to urge their local employers, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, to take on one young person and give them a chance. We must all work together to get young people back into work, apprenticeships, training or work experience. Earlier, several Deputies described young people coming out of college with PhDs and expecting not to work. That is a tragedy for this country and the investment in their education.

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