Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this very important motion, which I am happy to support. Possibly the biggest challenge facing the European Union at the moment is youth unemployment, which is economically destructive and socially corrosive. There are more than 5.5 million young people under the age of 25 throughout the EU who are without jobs. In the lead-up to the Irish Presidency we had several jamborees, pronouncements and newspaper interviews in which the Minister for Social Protection was central, telling us that she was going to propose a youth guarantee to her colleagues in the EU during the course of Ireland's Presidency. She said she was going to take charge of it and that it would be a scheme to end all schemes. It was the subject of several newspaper articles, particularly in Sunday newspapers; I stopped counting after four but I am sure there were more than that. The net result of all that boasting and all those acres of newsprint was a commitment or pledge by the European Union of €6 billion for a youth guarantee scheme. One does not have to be a mathematical genius to know that if there are more than 5.5 million people unemployed, a sum of €6 billion to be spent over seven years equates to less than €200 per annum per person. That demonstrates a distinct lack of will on the part of the EU. An attempt was made in the European Parliament to increase that figure substantially but that was inexplicably voted down, with the assistance of MEPs from Fine Gael and the Labour Party. That is a matter of public record.

In view of the lack of will on the part of the EU, each nation state is thrown back on its own resources. As evidence of its commitment, the Irish Government, in its wisdom, decided to allocate the princely sum of €14 million for a youth guarantee scheme here - that is, to guarantee everyone under the age of 25 who is unemployed for more than four months either a job, education or training. The sum of €14 million equates to €211 per annum for each individual who falls into the aforementioned category. The experts, including those in the International Labour Organization and the National Youth Council of Ireland, tell us that to have a proper youth guarantee scheme in this country along the lines of the one operating in Sweden would require an investment of more than €400 million. I believe the figure cited was €420 million. We are providing a mere 2% of that figure. The Government would be more honest if, instead of spreading €14 million across all of those under 25 who are unemployed, it gave a guarantee to two out of every 100, because that is exactly what the funding will cover.

The official unemployment rate in this country is 13.2%, while the figure for youth unemployment is in the region of 30%, which is considerably higher than the European average. However, those official figures mean less and less. They fail to take into account, for example, emigration. Gross emigration from this country in the last 12 months ran at a rate of 1,600 per week, which is well in excess of 200 people per day. The true rate is also masked by the fact that a lot of those people under the age of 25 who are in jobs fall into the category of the underemployed. Many of them are in part-time jobs. I know some people who are officially registered as employed but have only a very marginal connection to the workforce. Furthermore, the figures for youth unemployment also fail to take into account the fact that there are many people who are not in a job, education or training who are not picked up by the system at all. The most reliable statistic we can use is that three or four years ago 16% of the Irish population was under the age of 25. That cohort has fallen by a quarter, to 12%, which is proof positive, if proof were needed, that the youth are voting with their feet and leaving the country.

The Irish Organisation for the Unemployed has said that the way to encourage young people and stop them drifting into long-term unemployment is to have a proper activation system, not to be cutting their social welfare payments. Everybody, including the OECD, the IMF and the European Commission, knows that the activation system we have here is nothing short of a joke. The Minister for Social Protection spoke about honesty, but does any Deputy on any side of this House honestly believe that the current activation system is working? How many people have been taken off the live register? The Taoiseach said that 100,000 would be taken off the live register within 18 months. How could this work when there is only one case worker for every 800 people who are unemployed? How could that system possibly work? The Government policy has been to cut social welfare benefits for young people. How does cutting the unemployment benefits of those who have plenty of qualifications and do not need any further education or training help the economy or create more employment? How does it help to cut the social welfare benefit for a young person because he or she cannot access a non-existent training or education place? The Government's policy on youth unemployment is, like its policy in so many other areas, a triumph of spin over substance. However, it is not really a triumph at all because in this area in particular, that spin will dissolve on its first contact with reality. The young people of this country know that their benefits have been cut for an excuse that is nothing short of a fig leaf. They also know that the Government's policy on young people is to hurry them along to the nearest airport, even giving them directions and getting jobs for them in Canada so that the unemployment figures will look better. It is a case of spin over substance, but the Government should bear one thing in mind. When the time comes, it will be on the substance they will be judged, not the spin.

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