Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also thank Deputies Mac Lochlainn and Crowe for submitting their motion this evening because it gives us an opportunity to reflect on this subject. I have consistently welcomed the youth guarantee and welcomed the promise of that guarantee. In fairness to Deputy John Lyons, he was the first person to debate that concept, and during meetings of the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation he has been a very passionate advocate of the guarantee. He has put an enormous amount of work into it.

However, my concern all along regarding the youth guarantee, which is now being realised, is the funding issue. I also concerned that the silo mentality of the Government and its predecessors still predominates and the guarantee will be its latest victim. The Department of Social Protection will ring-fence its resources and it will not share information or resources with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation while neither of them will bother talking to the Department of Education and Skills. The guarantee, even if it was properly funded, still would not have the impact it could because of the way of we do government. The Government is making little effort to try to break down those silos. When 59,000 people under the age of 25 are out of work and seeking an employment opportunity, what more incentive does one want to tear down those walls? The youth guarantee is the vehicle to do this and it provides a perfect excuse to do so. This is the opportunity but the ink is hardly dry on our EU Presidency and the guarantee is running into funding difficulties.

I was critical of the Taoiseach last week for heading off to Paris. The Minister boasted about being in Paris earlier yet there are funding issues here. As Deputy O'Dea said, the European funding is inadequate but responsibility for the impact of the funding issue on the 59,000 young people in Ireland lies in Dublin. It is beyond me why we have a national training fund with €112 million sitting in it and we are squabbling over funding the youth guarantee. The purpose of the fund is to enable people to take upskilling opportunities to become skill ready for the labour market and gain employment. When they are in employment, their employer makes a contribution to the fund and, therefore, it is self-paying and self-fulfilling.

Many sectors are crying out for labour, one of which is tourism and hospitality. The Restaurants Association of Ireland has an ambitious proposal to train chefs because there is a shortage in the economy. On the one hand, the Government is investing significant money with, for example, the 9% VAT rate costing the Exchequer €330 million but, on the other, it does not have the money to train chefs. This is a perfect example of the silos to which I referred. The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport has a need but it will not talk to the Departments of Education and Skills or Social Protection about funding that need or funding a small plan that could train 5,000 young people not only to have a job in the hospitality industry, but a long-term career. CERT was subsumed by Fáilte Ireland a number of years ago. It used to provide hospitality training and at this time of the year when hotels closed seasonally, they were often turned around to provide training opportunities. Many hotels are closed for other reasons now and they would be perfect for doing this but Fáilte Ireland is getting out of hospitality training and leaving it up to the Department of Social Protection and the private sector to provide training. This is an example of a demand for employment but resources are missing, even though they are sitting in a fund. They would be targeted properly if there was a plan behind the ambition of the youth guarantee.

We all share that ambition and we all want it to work out. Deputy Lyons referred to second generation unemployment and I can point to families with third generation unemployment. We need to break that cycle. We need to show that employment is good and creates opportunities. However, without skills, one will not secure employment. If we are honest about this, the ambition of the youth guarantee will be watered down in funding rows between Departments and it will be seen as another missed opportunity with more spin than substance in the context of what needs to be done.

The Minister of State has a personal involvement in the guarantee, which needs to be fought for. Somebody in Cabinet needs to stand up. The Minister's contribution earlier was mostly along the lines of her creating the world in the first six days and resting on the seventh.

See this speech in context