Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting my Topical Issues matter. I also thank the Minister, Deputy Burton, for being present to discuss this important issue.

The need for a youth guarantee has been discussed for many years. From meetings I have attended and spoken at since becoming Chairman of the European Union affairs committee, I know that there is political will for a guarantee. Last year, I spoke at a conference in Nottingham organised by our sister party in the UK, the Labour Party, where political leaders and young people spoke about how a youth guarantee would help to return hope to young Europeans and give them faith in the European project at a time when many do not understand why Europe is important in their lives.

The young people I have met in places like Ratoath, Duleek and Kells want to know what supports they will have if they need them. What is already in place is not good enough for young people who cannot get jobs after leaving school or college. The Minister has done a great deal of work to improve the system in recent years, but more needs to be done. Of those young people undertaking apprenticeships or trying to start their own businesses, for example, it is important that they know they can take that chance without being left behind if it goes wrong.

The Minister signed the agreement during the Irish Presidency of the European Council with the other member states. She managed to get a specific investment of €6 billion in the youth guarantee scheme across the Union. She also worked hard to get €250,000 to start a pilot project in Ballymun in north Dublin. That project is in operation. I have spoken with my party colleagues, for instance, Ms Emer Costello, concerning the pilot project. She is positive about it and has told me that the group engagement is going well and there is tremendous local interest. I wish the pilot project all the best and hope it turns out to be a success. I also hope that the lessons learned from it can be applied nationally when the scheme is rolled out.

That is my main reason for raising this matter. When can young people in places like Ashbourne, Dunshaughlin and Stamullen expect to have the same support as the young people in Ballymun? We all want to offer every young adult the best opportunities, but for that to happen we need to put the right supports in place. What will the youth guarantee look like in Meath and how will young people interact with it? There is an opportunity to involve local small to medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, and other stakeholders in the scheme. Will the Minister update the House on when young people in County Meath and elsewhere can expect to see the youth guarantee rolled out to them?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Since entering office, the Government has made firm and steady progress on increasing employment and reducing unemployment. Some 61,000 more people were in jobs at the end of 2013 and unemployment has decreased from a crisis peak of 15.1% to 11.8% now. Data published by EUROSTAT, the EU's statistical agency, show that Ireland's unemployment rate is now in line with the eurozone average, having been up to 40% above the average only two years ago. Youth unemployment has decreased from a peak of more than 80,000 in early 2009 to an estimated 54,000 at present. However, it is still too high. For this reason, I am determined to increase the pace of our progress. The youth guarantee will be central to the issue of youth unemployment.

I have consistently stated that a fiscal response to the economic crisis was never going to be enough - there must also be a social response. The youth guarantee is a key element of that social response, putting our young people, who will build this country's future, front and centre. The youth guarantee can be summed up in a single word, namely, "opportunities". It is about ensuring that we give our young people the opportunities they need to achieve their full potential.

The concept of the youth guarantee is simple - to ensure that all young people under the age of 25 years receive good quality offers of employment, continued education, apprenticeships or traineeships within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. Given the size of the challenge involved and the financial constraints under which we still labour, though, this cannot be done overnight. While our published implementation plan is ambitious in its scope, it is important to stress that there is no instant or single solution to the problem of unemployment among young people. It will take time and perseverance and involve ongoing investment and the sustained effort of the State, employers, unions and jobseekers. This is what the Ballymun pilot scheme has clearly shown.

The guarantee will be implemented on a phased basis over time by enhancing the Intreo engagement with newly unemployed young people and maintaining and developing the current range of education, training and employment interventions for young people. By the end of 2014, processes and programmes will be progressively rolled out across the country, including County Meath, to ensure that all of those young unemployed people who need the most support - that is, are assessed as having a low probability of securing employment in the absence of support from the public employment services - will receive youth guarantee offers within four months. The guarantee will initially concentrate on the hard-to-place young people, those who may have left school early or, despite their youth, have been unemployed for a considerable time.

Between 2014 and 2015, all long-term unemployed people under 25 years of age will be engaged by the public employment service and receive a youth guarantee offer if still unemployed after four months of the engagement process commencing. I consider long-term unemployed young people to be a major priority group, not just of the youth guarantee, but of our Pathways to Work activation strategy more generally. Without intervention and help, they risk becoming the "left behind" generation of the great recession.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I must interrupt the Minister, but she will have two minutes to reply to Deputy Hannigan.

Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her comments. The guarantee is important for young people around the country. Last week, I spoke in a school in Ashbourne to approximately 80 young students. One of their concerns was the economy. I was able to tell them about our great progress in reducing unemployment levels. As I am sure the Minister is aware, the most recent figures for Kells show that the number of people unemployed has decreased by almost 300 in the past year. We must recognise that progress is being made, although we must do more.

I welcome the Minister's comments on the roll-out of the scheme across County Meath and the rest of the country by the end of 2014. That is positive news. The many people who are keenly watching the scheme will be glad to hear it. Will the scheme be targeted at those areas where trends in unemployment levels are greater than elsewhere? Can we ensure that the people and areas that need the scheme most are prioritised? Are there plans in that regard?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The youth guarantee will be run on a national basis.

While it is unlikely that the Department will operate a specific scheme for each of the more than 60 local offices, as well as sub-offices run by contractors to the Department, there will be flexibility to tailor the implementation to local conditions with regard to the cohorts or groups of young people to be selected for engagement in the first instance. Therefore, the specific approach to be followed in County Meath, for example, will be a matter for the local departmental management in consultation with relevant stakeholders. I include public representatives in the area as being among those relevant stakeholders and, most importantly, employers. What I am seeking to achieve is a cultural change and to ask employers to include young people.

Later in the year and specifically in the forthcoming legislation we will widen the scope of a number of existing schemes that the Department operates to open them to people under 25 years of age. That might mean community employment, CE, schemes. There are people aged 24 years who might never have worked and the route to a job for them could be to go back into education or to continue the education they did not finish or it could be to participate in a local community employment scheme. I have visited Cork and saw a number of CE schemes which specifically involve young people in activities relating to local leisure centres, sporting activities and so forth, in which there is a great interest.

It is a very wide canvas but the critical issue is to bring in employers in the locality, both to tell young people about the types of jobs that exist and to include them when considering the people they are hiring.