Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to conclude the debate for the Government side. My colleague, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, described in great detail the scarring effects that unemployment can have on young people, resonating throughout their lives. The only way to avoid those scars and to ensure that young people have access meaningful opportunities is to get the economy growing again and to generate real jobs. That is exactly what the Government is doing. In the three years before this Government took office, employment was falling by 100,000 per annum. During the past year, that trend has been reversed and approximately 3,000 jobs are now being created each month. We expect employment to continue growing at that rate into next year. That is the general trend, but there has also been some stabilisation of the levels of youth employment since the Government took office. The number of young people in jobs fell by close to 190,000 in the three years before the Government took office. I accept that it fell even further, by approximately 18,000, in 2012.

Youth employment has stabilised in the past year and appears set to start growing as the economic recovery continues. The youth unemployment rate has fallen from 31% in early 2012 to 28% in the first half of this year and continues to fall, albeit not quickly enough.

I propose to make some points on the role of education because it is important to have an informed debate about an issue as serious as the future of our young people. I acknowledge, however, as everyone does, that more must be done and in that regard, I share the concerns of Sinn Féin. In the past two and a half years we have begun the work of completely reshaping the interactions between unemployed persons and the State. When people became unemployed in the past, they went to an office which assessed the level of financial support they should be given, without reference to what they would do with the rest of their lives or how they would re-enter the labour market. There was a complete disconnect between unemployment and returning to the labour market. We are slowly unrolling the Intreo service. While we would like to do so quickly, this is not possible. Under this system, if a young or middle aged person loses his or her job, he or she will be asked to state his or her family circumstances which will determine the financial support to be provided. However, unlike previously in dole offices, persons in these circumstances will also be asked what they propose to do with the rest of their lives. They may have a qualification for which there is no longer a demand, in which case they will be asked what they propose to do about the issue and how Intreo can help. They will be asked to take up employment, seek work experience or training. We are trying to develop a Scandinavian social market model.

The live register is not a static set of figures but an extraordinarily vibrant indicator of the large number of people churning through employment and unemployment. We must reach a point at which we provide a degree of security in order that people do not fall through the floor into abject poverty. If someone loses his or job, for whatever reason, and presents to claim the social support to which he or she is entitled, having paid into a social welfare system, he or she will also be asked what new qualifications, training or experience he or she will accept. Where people indicate they are not interested in an offer, there must be consequences. Jobs are available in new areas. For example, the current global shortfall in teachers is 16 million and there are 5 million vacancies for people with information and communications technology skills in the European Union. There is a gap between the jobs that need to be filled and the skills available. We are trying to match skills to jobs.

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