Ms Emer Costello, MEP:

I thank Members of Seanad Éireann for the invitation to address them. I am delighted to have an opportunity to outline the nature of my work and discuss European issues of national importance with the Seanad. As Senators are aware, I have been a Member of the European Parliament since February 2012 when Proinsias De Rossa retired. Since entering the Parliament, I have become a member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, chairperson of the delegation to the Palestinian Legislative Council and substitute member of the crime and money laundering and development committees. While my focus will be on my work on the Employment and Social Affairs Committee, I would be pleased to speak about aspects of my other roles, particularly as the chairperson of the delegation to Palestine. For this reason, if Senators have questions on these matters, I will be glad to answer them either today or on another visit to the Seanad or committee of the House.

The founding values of the European Union are still very much in evidence in the current treaties. Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union emphasises respect for human dignity and solidarity as core values of the Union. Article 3 states: "The Union's aim is to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its people." Article 3 commits the Union to work for social progress, fight for social justice and protect the rights of the child. Article 9 of the much maligned Lisbon treaty sets out one of the most important elements of the European treaties, the social clause, which requires the European Union to take the promotion of high levels of employment, adequate social protection and the fight against social exclusion into account in all of its policies.

The founding principles and values of the European Community are also enunciated in the Europe 2020 strategy agreed in June 2010. Under this strategy, member state Governments agreed five headline targets for 2020. They include achieving a 75% employment rate, reducing the school drop-out rate to below 10% and reducing the number of people at risk of poverty by at least 20 million.

As Senators are aware, the economic crisis is clearly affecting Europe's ability to achieve these targets and exacerbating poverty and social exclusion. At the start of the crisis, unemployment rose and the number of jobless households increased. At the same time, the risk of poverty and material deprivation began to rise, reversing the previous trend towards a reduction in the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion. By 2011, almost one quarter of the total population of the European Union or 120 million people, including 25 million children, were at risk, an increase of 6 million in two years. More than 40 million people in the European Union suffer from what is known as severe material deprivation. This is the inability to pay housing or utility bills or keep one's home warm. Further, one in ten of those aged under 60 years lives in a household with low work intensity.

What all of these statistics indicate is that all member states are essentially grappling with the same problems. However, some member states are doing better than others, as noted by Commission President, Mr. José Manuel Barroso, in the European Parliament last September when he stated: "It is precisely those European countries with the most effective social protection systems and with the most developed social partnerships that are among the most successful and competitive economies in the world." If this is the case, as I believe it is, there is a correlation between well-designed social expenditure and economic competitiveness. For this reason, Europe must take into account longer-term challenges such as demographic change and view sound social spending not as compensation but as a positive investment in the future, one which will create prosperity and is on a par with education, training, accident prevention and health promotion.

This is the core idea behind the social investment package launched by Commissioner László Andor last week. The package, which I hope will spark a major debate about the future direction of Europe, emphasises the importance of pursuing a social investment approach. The Commission, like the Labour Party's political group in the European Parliament, the Socialists and Democrats, believes Europe needs to shift its focus towards investing in people. This belief is the reason I very much support the current proposal that 25% of Cohesion Funds in the Multi-annual Financial Framework 2014 to 2020 would be allocated to the European Social Fund, ESF, and that 20% of member states' ESF spending would be focused on social inclusion and combating poverty.

In practical terms, social investment means focusing on policies that help prepare people for life's challenges, rather than waiting to repair the consequences of failing to meet these challenges. Social investment is essential as it helps to prevent much higher bills having to be paid in future. I propose to concentrate on two current European social investment priorities that I am pursuing in the European Parliament. The first is the implementation of a youth guarantee to help address youth unemployment. I hope to hear good news on this priority this morning from EPSCO, the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council. The second is the fund for European aid for the most deprived which will replace the current European food aid programme and reaches out to those on the margins of society.

I will first address the issue of youth unemployment. One of the key social investment approaches I have been advocating since taking my seat in the European Parliament is the concept of a European youth guarantee. This is the issue I have raised most often in the Parliament since becoming an MEP. Yesterday, the Central Statistics Office published figures which indicate that Ireland is, at last, beginning to turn the tide on unemployment. The figures appear to bear out the European Commission's recent economic forecasts which estimated that after five years of a collapsing labour force, total employment in Ireland will grow this year, albeit by only 0.9%, following last year's growth of only 0.1%. I hope this is an indication that the tide is turning. While it is good news, much more needs to be done.

Europe is in the midst of an unemployment crisis. The most recent EUROSTAT figures record EU unemployment at the unprecedented high of 11.7% or 26 million people. Europe's youth unemployment rate in December 2012 was 23.4% or 5.7 million people, an increase of more than 50% since 2008. Ireland's youth unemployment rate is 27.7%, which is a three-fold increase since 2008 when it was 9%. We know that these figures are tempered by the approximately 3,000 young people who leave our shores each month.

Youth unemployment risks a scarring of a generation of young people. Research indicates that periods spent unemployed at the commencement of one's working life can have negative affects later in life in terms of career prospects, salaries, pensions and health. Youth unemployment limits the lives of young people. It prevents them from making their contribution to society and leads to disengagement, alienation and, often, crime. No society can be vibrant and competitive if almost 30% of its young workforce is unemployed.

Youth unemployment also costs in financial terms. The Commission estimates the annual cost of young people not being in employment, education or training is 1.2% of GDP or ¤150 billion. The best way to ensure young people find work is to get the economy growing again. For this reason the ¤120 billion Compact for Growth and Jobs agreed last June by the European Council must be implemented in full. The January decision of the European Investment Bank governing board to increase the bank's capital by ¤10 billion must be translated into a concrete pan-European investment programme in infrastructure and people. Last week, I raised at European Parliament the need to ensure much of this funding is made available to SMEs. The increase in funding for the EIB would result in an additional ¤60 billion being available for lending and could leverage an additional ¤180 billion for investment projects between 2013 and 2015. We need to be able to draw on that. We need also to ensure that multi-annual financial framework, MFF, currently being debated in the European Parliament and negotiated with the European Council provides the resources and flexibility necessary to achieve EU aims, particularly those set down in the Europe 2020 strategy, and is focused on growth-enhancing future priorities rather than the past.

There is no doubt that a youth guarantee is one of thebest ways to help tackle the scourge of youth unemployment. The youth guarantee approach involves public authorities, employment services and relevant stakeholders, working together to ensure that every unemployed young person receives a quality job offer, apprenticeship or traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. Its core principle is to identify and address the needs of each young person rather than simply slot them into existing service provision. The focus is very much on the client's needs rather than what the service-provider does. The youth guarantee approach has been tried and tested. It is working in Austria, which has a youth unemployment rate of 8.5%, and in Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Finland. It is a policy initiative for which the Labour Party and its sister parties across Europe have been campaigning for some time.

On 5 December, the Commission presented a proposal for a recommendation to the Council for a youth guarantee. The main aims of this proposal are to mobilise member states to reduce youth unemployment; suggest a model to follow when setting up youth guarantee projects and establish peer review schemes to assess the effectiveness of adopted projects. I welcome that adoption of this proposal is one of the main priorities of Ireland's EU Presidency and that this will be adopted at today's Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council, EPSCO, meeting which is being chaired by Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton. We await what we hope will be good news from the EPSCO on that matter.

We must now ensure that the youth guarantee approach is supported with European resources. The ¤6 billion allocated to youth employment in the EU budget on 8 February is a start and a step in the right direction. However, further intervention will be required to ensure the issue is tackled. The European Parliament will monitor developments in this regard. I welcome that the Government has applied for EU funding to support youth guarantee pilot projects in Ireland. It is hoped some of these will take effect prior to the youth guarantee coming into force. I believe the youth guarantee can play a role in reducing Ireland's youth unemployment rates and can assist us in achieving the EU 2020 target of an employment rate of 75%, which target is worth striving for.

I would now like to address the proposed replacement for the existing EU Food Aid Programme, namely, the Fund for European Aid for the Most Deprive, FEAD, in respect of which I am honoured to have been appointed EU rapporteur. Some Members may be familiar with the MDP, most deprived person's, programme which provides food for those living on the margins and in need. We have all seen the recent reports on child poverty and poverty and the alarming statistics in that regard. One of the main features of material deprivation is an inability to access appropriate quantities of food. Earlier, I mentioned the statistics in relation to poverty. There are 43 million people across Europe who are living in poverty. This means they are unable to afford a meal with meat, chicken or fish, or vegetarian equivalent, at least once every two days.

Under the Most Deprived Persons programme member states have since 1987 been able to release intervention stocks and surplus food for distribution as food aid. Some 20 member states currently participate in the MDP, with approximately 19 million people benefiting annually. This is the only European programme that directly reaches out to people living on the margins of society. The MDP has become an important support for NGOs and charities working with people who are homeless and suffering severe material deprivation, including Crosscare and Brother Kevin Crowley and Ms Theresa Dolan of the Capuchin Day Centre to whom I gave an award when Lord Mayor. While the MDP has never sought to resolve food poverty in member states, organisations participating in the programme have emphasised that the predictability of this European support is crucial to their operations. The programme is funded from the budget of the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. However, with the running down of intervention stocks the MDP became less sustainable and lost its core rationale. Some member states believed it also breached market rules. As such, it was agreed the MDP should be phased out. The European Parliament and many of the NGOs believed it was an important programme and it could not be terminated without first putting in place a replacement. They believed not doing so would send out a negative message, particularly at a time when there is a huge increase in the levels of poverty, as evidenced by the number of people availing of the services provided by Brother Kevin Crowley through the Capuchin Day Centre, Crosscare and so on.

Last October, the Commission responded to these calls by proposing a new fund entitled the Fund for European Aid for the Most Deprived, which is commonly referred to as the FEAD fund. This fund of ¤2.5 billion will enable EU member states, working in conjunction with NGOs and partner organisations, to provide food and other aids. It is estimated that there are 4 million homeless people across Europe. While we are aware that children are particularly at risk of poverty, young adults and people with a migrant background are increasingly featuring among the homeless. The purpose of the FEAD programme is to support schemes that address food deprivation and to, for the first time, support provision of every day items which homeless people and materially deprive children cannot access.

Crucially, from a social investment perspective, it would also support accompanying measures that aim to better engage with people suffering from food poverty, such as the homeless and materially deprived children, by enabling them to reintegrate into society. The fund would also support a European platform to enable member states and participating partner organisations to learn from each other and exchange practices.

The Commission's proposal to establish the fund is just that, a proposal, and must be scrutinised and amended by the European Parliament and by the Council of Ministers before it comes in effect. My role as rapporteur is to steer the proposal through the European Parliament. I have produced a report and set out 63 amendments to the Commission's proposal and presented the proposal to the European Parliament. Many of the issues in the amendments to the Commission's proposal cover a range of issues including emphasising the partnership principle, clarifying definitions such as accompanying measures, seeking to protect the dignity of final beneficiaries and strengthening the links between the fund and other European actions such as in the field of public health and eliminating food waste. MEPs now have the chance to table amendments before a complex negotiation process with MEPs and the Council.

The fund is important and some ¤2.5 billion has been set aside for it. I welcome the fact that the efforts of the Cypriot Presidency to reduce the fund were not agreed by the Council. I welcome the fact the fund has survived the first phase of the multi-annual financial framework because some discussions suggested some countries were not in favour of the fund. It is important that it survived the multi-annual negotiations on 8 February. We must acknowledge that ¤2.5 billion is a contribution and we must be vigilant that it remains intact as the fund makes its way through the Council and the European Parliament.

I met the EU Committee of the Regions during the week and we discussed the fund. The new fund should not be seen as a substitute for the comprehensive policies needed to reduce and eventually eliminate poverty. This is the major challenge for us. I provided the House with figures on the levels of poverty and deprivation in the EU. We need to address that but the new fund reaches out to people at the margins and tries to bring them in.

It is important we send a strong signal and keep the fund. It should be a practical expression of the EU core values and principles and a tangible recognition that the Union is willing to play its part in confronting the challenges of poverty and social exclusion. The proposed FEAD programme and the youth guarantee approach are two practical expressions of the social investment approach being taken up at European level. I very much welcome and support this approach. We need a debate about social Europe and to embed this approach more securely in the EU's decision-making structures. Member states have rightly agreed new rules for the monitoring and co-ordination of economic and fiscal policies. We know fiscal consolidation, on its own, is not sufficient. Sustainable growth and jobs will only be achieved where there is an emphasis on growth, investment packages and investment policies.

Having addressed fiscal consolidation and tried to get our economy on track, the other part of the equation is to do the same for our social and employment policies. We must place the same emphasis on investing in people and education as we do on stabilising our public finances. In short, Europe needs a social pact, a so-called fourth pillar. If we have economic, monetary and political union, we need social union and we need it to be underpinned by an agreement and a social pact.

The Seanad may be interested in taking up the idea of a social pact for Europe, which I believe in quite passionately. Such a pact should set out a list of specific measures in the form of social investments to be taken up by member states, with the support of EU funding, particularly the European Social Fund, over a given timeframe in order to meet the employment, anti-poverty and education targets of the Europe 2020 strategy. This should be subject to a monitoring framework of common social indicators in the same way economic indicators are monitored. There is a window of opportunity to agree such a social pact. In December, the European summit finally recognised the importance of strengthening the social dimension of a genuine economic and monetary union. This aspect will be discussed again in the June negotiations on the future of EMU at the June Council. The June summit should aim to make concrete progress towards a binding social pact for the EU to ensure our budgetary objectives are reconciled with our social and employment objectives. Europe can achieve the Europe 2020 strategy only if we now put in place the measures but it is in all our interests to work towards it.

There are many other areas to my work and I have taken up a huge number of issues. As chair of the delegation to the Palestinian Legislative Council, important work is going on and if Members would like to discuss that with me now I would be happy to discuss the issues.

I feel honoured to be in this august Chamber. Not having been a Member of either of the Houses of the Oireachtas, it is a daunting experience to come here but I am delighted to have the opportunity to discuss issues and ideas and I look forward to the feedback of Members.