John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have a question for Sinn Féin, which tabled this motion. How important is youth employment to it really? Although its budget proposal states on page 26 that it would ring-fence money obtained from a wealth tax for jobs for young people, Deputy Pearse Doherty, the party’s spokesman on finance, stated in an article in The Irish Times on 22 September that Sinn Féin's proposed wealth tax, which it would use to create jobs for people, would not be included in its alternative budget this year. If Sinn Féin is genuinely concerned about doing something for young people who are out of work, why was this measure put in an addendum as opposed to its being included among the real budget figures the party presented? The difference between Sinn Féin and us is we included our measure in a budgetary submission. We are doing something. It is disingenuous to state what one would do and yet not include that as part of this year's budget proposal. If youth unemployment is so important to Sinn Féin, why did it not include its figures on the wealth tax in its proposals instead of another provision that it did include? I am a little perturbed by that. There is some running with the fox and hunting with the hounds on the part of Sinn Féin.

With the exception of Deputies Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Seán Crowe, most Sinn Féin Members came into the House and read entirely from a script. There is not a bit of passion about the issue at all. It seems Deputies Mac Lochlainn and Crowe were definitely able to speak from experience, which stood out. I speak from experience also, but I believe it is very insulting for a Member to come into the House and pretend to care so much about an issue while having included that issue as a mere addendum in his party’s alternative budget.

The reality is we have to deal in facts. Some 8,000 jobs were lost per month before we came into government. Some 3,000 jobs per month are being created at present. This is not ideal but it is better by far than the set of circumstances we inherited. Every Member would agree it is highly unacceptable to have 59,000 unemployed young people, but the difference is we are doing something about it.

The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, mentioned that during the Irish Presidency, she fought for the youth guarantee to be EU policy, and it is EU policy. The Minister also fought for the money to be front-loaded in order that we could deal with the unemployment issue over the first two years of the new budget rather than over a budgetary term of seven years. This is not ideal but we are doing as much as we can. The areas the Deputy opposite and I represent are quite similar. As mentioned by the Minister, there is a startling issue whereby there are second generation jobless households. Many in the area I represent have never had anybody in their family work.

A decision was made on the rate of jobseeker's allowance for new entrants from 1 January. I do not like it but the reality is we are spending twice as much as we are saving by making the reduction. As a teacher who worked for 13 years in two disadvantaged schools, I believe the children there are equal to others and could be as motivated to reach their full potential if given the right resources. If any one of the pupils, who are adults when leaving school, were to come to me and did not know what to do and did not have a place in college, I would tell him to get into education and training. I would not tell him to do anything else because I know the value of education and training and that they create opportunities and open doors that would not otherwise be opened. The reality is that the people the Deputies opposite and I care about are those whom I want to have the best opportunities in life. The best opportunity is afforded to somebody by giving him or her the possibility of education and training. This is why the additional money is being used to create additional spaces. It is in order that the people about whom we all care and for whom we want to ensure a fairer society will have that opportunity.

Some will say that the jobs are simply not there for everybody at the moment, and we all know that is true. However, we know there is a momentum building in the context of job creation. We also know from research that the next best thing we can do for those who are unemployed is to keep them close to the labour market. That means giving them a reason to get up every day, a sense of dignity in their lives and a sense that their community and their State cares about them. That is the purpose of the youth guarantee and the various youth employment initiatives. The aim is to create opportunities for young people under the age of 25 who find themselves, unfortunately and through no fault of their own, out of work for more than four months. We know from the projected figures for next year for people under the age of 25 who are out of work that there will be sufficient places, due to the additional 20,000 places that will be provided from January 2014 as well as the existing 60,000 places for jobseekers. I have no doubt that places will be found for everyone seeking to improve his or her quality of life. That is why we are doing this. That is also why I have been speaking about this since before I became a Deputy. I pushed the whole idea of a youth guarantee in this House long before anyone else did. Lots of people followed afterwards when it became popular, not only in Deputy Mac Lochlainn's party but in other parties too. We are taking action. We are trying our best and making a difference. Do we have infinite resources? No, we do not, but we have to deal with reality we face.

We should be judged on what we have done and any debate on this issue should be based on facts and figures and nothing else. In that context, we must have a debate at some future date on emigration. Figures were mentioned here this evening that I would dispute. I agree that emigration is unfortunate, and nobody wants to see a family member or a neighbour leave this country. However, the figures that were bounced around here tonight do not show the real impact of emigration. Nobody referred to the fact, for example, that 5,000 people migrated back to Ireland from Australia this year.

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