Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I join my colleagues in welcoming Ms Costello to the House. It is apt that we are discussing employment and social inclusion this week following the agreement that has been reached on the youth guarantee at today's EPSCO meeting. EUROSTAT released interesting statistics earlier this week relating to social inclusion. The economic crisis, which has stripped away many social welfare rights, is contributing to a widening poverty gap between member States, the European Commission has said, and the worst affected are young people, unemployed women and single mothers in member states predominantly located in the east and south of the Union. The European Commissioner with responsibility for employment, László Andor, said in Brussels on 8 January: "Most welfare systems have lost their ability to protect household incomes against the effects of the crisis."

Indeed, Irish children and working age adults are more at risk of poverty or social exclusion than children elsewhere in western Europe, according to EUROSTAT data released earlier this week. These figures show Irish children are more likely to face social exclusion and financial poverty than their counterparts in 22 of the other 26 member states. A total of 38% of Irish under 18s are most at risk of one of three forms of poverty or social exclusion by living in households with incomes below 60% of the national median or households where people are unable to pay bills on time or households where adults have paid work for less than 20% of their available time. When people among all age groups are taken into account, 29.9% are at risk of poverty, which is well above the EU average of 24.2%. These are damning statistics. How, while holding the Presidency, do we move towards social inclusion in Europe when there is such rampant social exclusion in our State? How can we move towards leading by example and reducing poverty levels? I acknowledge we are in a bailout programme and all Departments are subject to cutbacks but given how important social inclusion is and that we are holding the Presidency, how can we bridge the gap?

The EPSCO meeting earlier agreed the youth guarantee package and the timing is perfect, given the alarming unemployment figures throughout the EU. The headline figure of 11.7% is bad enough but it is important that we highlight the sharp increase in long-term joblessness, which is more concerning. We need to address it as a matter of urgency when one considers that 45% of the Union's unemployed have been out of work for more than a year and, in eight countries, that percentage increases to more than 50%. In the foreword to its winter forecast, Marco Buti, head of the Commission's economic directorate, acknowledged the grave social consequences resulting from the unemployment crisis. The Commission paper conceded that long-term unemployment is associated with lower employability of jobseekers and lower sensitivity of the labour market to economic upturn. Where do we go from here in funding the youth guarantee and so on? How do we make sure the guarantee is properly resourced? Will we have to match funding? How do we make sure that is done? The guarantee provides for training and further education places and internships but how do we guarantee integration into the labour force? We do not want cheap labour when the recession is over. We need sustainable jobs for young people, which are socially and legally guaranteed, as well as the minimum wage and education and training.