Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the progress that has been made in guaranteeing the young people who are unemployed here a job or training within three months as proposed under the youth guarantee that she has been discussing with Social Protection Ministers from other EU States. [11377/13]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the additional steps she will take in securing youth guarantee during the Irish Presidency of the EU; the timeframe for its implementation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11086/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 85 and 99 together.

Research evidence shows that early and prolonged periods of unemployment during a person’s lifetime can have a permanent scarring effect on that person’s capacity to improve his or her standard of living. This is a particular problem during an economic downturn as young people tend to suffer the impact of job losses more than any other age group. It is estimated that approximately 7.5 million young people are neither in education, employment or training - the so-called NEETs group - across the EU.

This is an issue that needs urgent and concerted attention at an EU level and one that the Irish Government identified as a core agenda item of the Irish EU Presidency.

Under my chairmanship, the Council of Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Ministers, known as EPSCO, last week agreed a recommendation on an EU-wide youth guarantee. The EPSCO recommendation is that each member state should ensure that young people receive a quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed, subject to registering with the unemployment services in their own country. The recommendation will now move to be considered for formal adoption by the Council at a later stage in Ireland's Presidency, most likely in May.

The recommendation encourages member states to implement its provisions as soon as possible once it is formally adopted. It is also recognised that implementation will need to be more gradual in countries with higher levels of youth unemployment and particularly severe budgetary problems.

In anticipation of the formal adoption of the recommendation, the Government will review the current range of youth employment and training policies in Ireland to assess what measures will need to be taken to commence the gradual implementation of the guarantee. In the budgetary negotiations, a sum of €6 billion over the lifetime of the multi-annual financial framework has been set aside, the first time that this has been done for this specific heading. Although this is not as much money as I would have liked, it is, in itself, is a progressive step.

It is hoped this framework pathway for young people to get education, training and, ultimately, employment will be the beginning of a sustained downward movement in youth unemployment as the economy recovers. Even so, the implementation of a guarantee will certainly require an expansion in the range of opportunities currently on offer to young people in the form of further education, training, internships, subsidised private sector recruitment and supports for self-employment.

In this regard, the State already provides a significant number of places which are available to young people. The Department of Social Protection took steps in budget 2013 to increase funding and places for schemes such as JobBridge, community employment, Tús and a new State employment scheme in the local government sector. In total, an additional 10,000 places will be provided. The Department of Education also made provision for the new momentum programme which is providing 6,500 new training places, many of which will be taken up by young people. A new recruitment incentive, JobsPlus, has also been developed by my Department and was approved by the Government as part of the Action Plan for Jobs. This incentive will cover the cost of employers' PRSI contributions. The current period is 18 months and that will be extended.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the proposal although it is a pity that the EU has not had the urgency to date to deal with this issue, but it is better late than never. I wish to find out a bit more about the specifics because often one of the problems with such announcements is that, while there is a so-called guarantee and the Minister used the word "quality", we do not have the details.

Can the Minister guarantee that these are jobs of quality, that they are not yellow pack jobs and that there is no displacement of existing jobs involved? Furthermore, can she guarantee, in the case of training, that proper training will be provided, unlike the Tús scheme, where the State provides no training? Under that scheme, if participants are lucky, the employers they are placed with provide training. What happens at the end of this process? Are young people guaranteed a placement for six months or a year and is there a danger of simply shifting people off and back onto the live register? Obviously, the Minister will be addressing such issues in the coming months but I ask her to give us some further guidelines on the proposal because I do not want to be negative about this. Across Europe we must get young people, in particular, into employment, and I hope that will be where we can start to rebuild.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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In facing into the EU Presidency and considering the matter for almost two years I, as Minister for Social Protection, identified this as a critical area. In Ireland the unemployment rate has moved down but it is still at a very high level. In the case of young people throughout Europe, their rate is almost double the rate of unemployment for those over 25. With young people new to the labour market, there are not that many jobs available and in a depressed market, they face particular problems. I have met regularly the EU Commissioner responsible for social affairs and fellow Ministers across Europe, impressing on them that it is difficult to envisage a social Europe that would countenance an unemployment rate of 50% and over in some of the countries facing severe economic difficulties.

The agreement based on the work done in particular by Eurofound, a foundation headquartered in Ireland that deals with living and working conditions, has focused on young people who are not in education, employment or training. These are the people most at risk of long-term unemployment. There is also the agreement for the budget heading of €6 billion, which is provisional. We will know the outcome of that after the European Parliament deliberates with the Council President. I will revert to the Deputy as we pin down details and get it passed at the May Council meeting. I hope the agreement is a very good signal for us going in the direction of a social Europe.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Like the other speaker, I welcome the initiative. We are in a position where there has been some very marginal improvements in the number of people at work, largely due to 14,000 part-time jobs being created in the past six months. Nevertheless, the number of people under 35 at work continues to fall, which perhaps reflects the fact that emigration is still a feature of the Irish landscape. The Minister mentioned a provisional figure of €6 billion over the life of the programme. How will that break down and what will be our entitlement? What kind of matching funds will the Government have to provide to make the guarantee a reality year after year in the programme?

It is not just a case of guaranteeing a job, and if a person cannot get a job, that person would go into education. The Minister is aware that people who are long-term unemployed, in particular, have been in fourth level education. The Government has cut provision for fourth level education this year and the pupil-teacher ratio has increased from 15 pupils to 17 pupils per teacher. The Teachers Union of Ireland, which represents the teachers providing this type of education, has indicated they will be able to deal with fewer applicants this year.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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With regard to additional provisions this year, the Deputy may have heard a Government initiative being advertised in the media. The Momentum programme is a scheme for education and training interventions, with training targeted at areas where employment is available. A review was done for my Department of the various schemes which it supports, and it indicates that we are spending approximately €200 million this year as part of a €1 billion plus package on employment supports, with the €200 million being used to support people returning to education.

One of the important points in supporting people in returning to education is that we all be aware that there are areas where there are job vacancies – most obviously in the IT sector, for example – and that we should seek specifically to help people to return to work subsequent to their having returned to education. Prior to the changes I have been making, the Department of Social Protection was largely a passive Department. If one qualified for a payment, one received it and could be left alone forever after. We have been changing that to have an active service, not just to help people back into education in the new Intreo offices, but also to help them to return to employment. Thus, it is part of a coherent structure and framework to help young people to get a job, particularly their first one.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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On funding and emigration, the Minister mentioned that the number of unemployed people has decreased and that the number of employed people has increased slightly. Given that young people, in particular, are emigrating in significant numbers, when does the Minister expect the proposal to become live so young people who are considering emigrating may be given some hope? Can the Minister ensure that, consequent to her discussions, the funding can be front-loaded as much as possible so the effect can have its own momentum?

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Any employment supports made available by the Government are to be welcomed. The youth unemployment rate is 30% – only because so many youths are emigrating – and the rates in Greece, Spain and Italy are over 50%. The Minister states the impact of job losses is severe on the youth. However, the impact of austerity is very dramatic for them. It is more dramatic than the impact in a normal climate of job losses. Many young people's first economic activity is in the domestic economy. At present, the domestic economy has failed to recover, for a number of reasons and not only because of upward-only rent reviews. Rates are increasing and energy costs are still increasing. The banks are still closed and it is still impossible to get money from a bank. Does the Minister not believe that while the Government can make available all the supports it likes through its initiative, it will be very difficult to arrive at the good figures it desires until it deals with the domestic economy?

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the initiative and congratulate the Minister on all the work she is doing in Europe in this regard. If the recommendation is agreed at European level, will the thresholds in respect of the schemes for the unemployed be lowered? Consider the back-to-education allowance, for example. If one wants to proceed to third level education, one must be unemployed for a period of up to nine months. Will this period be shortened such that there will be a three-month or four-month threshold? Will that apply to other schemes for the unemployed?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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With regard to the questions of Deputies Ó Snodaigh and O'Dea, all the funding amounts must be finalised. In general, the funds would be within the envelope of European social funds and cohesion funds. I cannot give the Deputies a final figure except to say that President Von Rompuy's indicative figure was €6 billion, €3 billion of which was in the context of current resources and €3 billion of which was additional. However, I am conscious of the fact that President Von Rompuy must finalise and negotiate that with the European Parliament. The European Parliament, including parties and groups throughout it, has been extremely supportive of the development of a youth guarantee. When will it start? Assuming that all goes well, it will start when the next budgetary period starts, namely, the beginning of 2014. It will be necessary, therefore, to examine how it affects different countries. Consider the suggestions being made.

For countries with a youth unemployment rate of over 25%, which includes Ireland, some of the spending and activities would be front-loaded because, to take up Deputy Wallace's point, when we have a depressed economy, apprenticeships are an important area for youth training and education. Those schemes,however, have fallen on lean times because of the collapse in construction. We are talking about building a framework to help as many young people as possible to get education and training.

In Finland and Sweden when banks collapsed, during the following period, the Governments invested in education and training, which paid enormous dividends when their economies recovered.