Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion. It is only right and proper that we focus our attention on this group. Nationally, 30% of young people are unemployed but the percentage is higher in, for example, Donegal and Limerick, where it approaches 50%. There is plenty of research to show that when people experience unemployment early in their lives, they are likely to experience it again later in life. It is, therefore, an issue of major significance.

The cuts in the jobseeker's allowance for those aged under 26 will impact on 20,853 people next year according to the National Youth Council. That does not give us the full picture because many young people do not show up on the live register because their families marginally exceed the income threshold for welfare payments and they are simply not counted. Only one in seven of them will be able to access the additional 3,250 training places offered by the Government and, therefore, the opportunities Ministers keep talking about will not be created for every young person.

A fund of €8 billion has been allocated Europe wide to fund the youth unemployment scheme and while that is welcome and the money that will be provided in Ireland is welcome, to put it in context, the Government will spend the same amount in one year just to service the national debt. That is the amount being invested to tackle this unemployment crisis among young people. The unemployment rate among this cohort throughout Europe averages 23% but that increases to 60% in Spain and Greece and 40% in Italy, Portugal and Slovakia. It is a drop in the ocean for those to whom we pay lip service by saying they are our future. If so, there needs to be greater investment in them.

See this speech in context