Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The main social welfare schemes for people who are unemployed are jobseeker's allowance and benefit schemes which provide income support for people who have lost work and are unable to find alternative employment for a short time. The 2018 Estimates for the Department provide for expenditure this year on these jobseeker's schemes of €2.17 billion.

Lower weekly rates for younger jobseeker's allowance recipients were introduced to protect young people from welfare dependency by providing them with a very strong financial incentive to engage in education or training or to take up employment if they were lucky enough to be able to get a job. Where young jobseekers participate on an education or training programme, they receive the higher weekly payment of €193, which is the maximum personal rate for jobseeker's allowance. This will increase to €198 from 26 March 2018, having fully given the €5 increase to young people under 25.

The CSO's January 2018 monthly unemployment report shows that the seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate, that is, the unemployment rate for people aged between 15 and 24 years, was 13.7%. This represents a significant decrease of four and half percentage points from the rate of over 18% we recorded in January last year, so we definitely are going in the right direction.

The National University of Ireland, Maynooth is examining the effectiveness of the reduced rates in encouraging young jobseekers to avail of education, training, employment programmes or opportunities or both. While my Department did not commission this research, we have given the university access to the data from the jobseeker's longitudinal database. Under Pathways to Work 2016-2020, my Department committed to review and report on the impact of the reduced payment rates for jobseekers aged between 18 and 25. This review will be finalised shortly but we will take into account the recent results of the research from Maynooth.

I am keen to ensure the Department identifies effective measures to encourage and support young people in finding and securing sustainable jobs. The best way to do this is through engagement processes and by incentivising young people to avail of education and training, thereby enhancing their employment prospects.

See this speech in context