Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Seanad Éireann notes that:- 30.4% of under 25s were officially unemployed in 2012;
- this is the fifth highest rate of youth unemployment in the eurozone, after Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy;
- our youth unemployment rate has more than trebled since 2007;
- 53,800 under 25 were officially unemployed at the end of March 2013;
- the cost of youth unemployment to the Exchequer is estimated to be €3.16 billion annually;
- the number of young people in employment has fallen by 24,100 in the last 12 months;
- since Fine Gael and Labour took office the number of under 25s in the labour force has fallen by 34,500;
- 31,181 under 25 emigrated in the year up to April 2012;
- 18% of young people are not in education or employment or training, the fourth highest rate in the EU;
- of the 333 actions listed in the 2013 Action Plan on Jobs only four relate to young people;
- the European Council Recommendation of February 2013 announcing a youth employment initiative with a fund of €6 billion, while welcome, is not sufficiently resourced;
- the International Labour Organization has called for an investment of €21 billion EU wide to tackle youth unemployment;
- the proposed youth guarantee pilot project in Ballymun, while welcome, may not be up and running until 2014;and agrees that:- the Government is not doing enough to address the crisis of youth unemployment;
- the Government must urgently develop and resource a youth employment strategy;
- a central part of this strategy must be a high quality youth guarantee scheme that provides young people with an offer of employment, education, apprenticeship or traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed; and
- the youth guarantee scheme must be adequately funded, accessible to all, target those in greatest need and work in the interests of young people.

I welcome the Minister for Social Protection to the House to discuss this important issue. Usually during Private Members' time the Gallery is filled with representative organisations but youth organisations are at present gathered at a round table in the Civic Offices at Wood Quay hosted by the National Youth Council of Ireland and the European Youth Forum to discuss the implementation of the youth guarantee and the role for youth organisations in the future. I hope the Minister will make contact with these organisations to discuss the feedback from that round table.

Last week, I organised a conference in County Cavan on the youth guarantee which was attended by representatives of youth organisations, the European Commission and Parliament and other organisations with an interest in the matter. The broad discussion we had at that conference included contributions from a considerable number of young people. Several of the points I will be making today arose in that discussion and I will put a number of questions to the Minister that I hope she will be able to answer.

The motion sets out statistics on youth unemployment drawn from the CSO and Eurofound. They make for depressing reading, with 53,800 people under the age of 25 listed as officially unemployed and 24,100 fewer young people in employment now compared to last year. Since this Government took office, the number of young people in the labour force has shrunk by 14%, which equates to 34,100 young people who are no longer in the labour market. The number of young people not in employment, education or training in Europe equates to the population of the seven smallest member states of the EU. That is a harrowing figure.

While some of the young people who have left the labour market have gone into full-time education or training, most have emigrated in search of work or disengaged from local employment services. Many of the youth organisations I have consulted regard the Government's response as completely inadequate given the scale of the crisis facing young people. Only four of the 333 recommendations in the Action Plan for Jobs published in February related to young people. That is simply not good enough.

I ask the Minister why the Government has decided to locate the youth guarantee within the Department of Social Protection rather than the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. What role will the latter Department play in the pilot project and eventual State-wide youth guarantee scheme? The representative from the European Commission Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Catherine Blair, who attended our conference on Friday, stated that the issue will not go away on its own because young people need specific support. It will require a cross-departmental action plan and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation cannot shirk its responsibility in that regard.

The announcement in February of EU funding for youth employment initiatives, including the guarantee, is welcome but I share the concerns expressed by others, including the European Youth Forum, that the €6 billion allocated to these initiatives is nowhere near enough even to begin to address the problem. I am also concerned about the gradual implementation of the scheme. The Council recommendation on the youth guarantee called for schemes to be implemented at the earliest opportunity, while stating that member states with budgetary difficulties or high numbers of young people not in employment, education or training could consider more gradual implementation. However, we seem to have interpreted the recommendation as requiring us to adopt a more gradual implementation of the schemes. Why have we adopted this gradual approach despite our high level of youth unemployment? Given the social and economic consequences, the problems of youth unemployment and emigration cannot be put on a waiting list until the economic situation improves. Some 14% of young people under the age of 25 have left the labour market in the two years since this Government was formed.

If we wait any longer, we will only exacerbate the problem even further.

How is the Government proceeding in respect of the timescale for the implementation of the guarantee in the current circumstances? What criteria are being used and what type of phasing is involved? From the presentation that was made on the youth guarantee, I understand the Commission is very keen to obtain action plans from the various governments in the context of the roll out. I sensed some frustration with regard to the slow response from various member states on how the guarantee is to be rolled out. The Commission wants to hit the ground running from 1 January next. Has the Government developed a plan and forwarded it to the Commission? If not, will the Minister indicate when this will be done? I do not believe we should exit our Presidency - at the core of which has been the youth guarantee - without having our own blueprint in place.

The Ballymun pilot project is very welcome but I have a number of concerns. When will the project be up and running, when will the various stakeholders be brought together, how will it be evaluated and how will the lessons learned be transferred to other areas, particularly those with less well developed community supports? Is the Minister in a position to provide a guarantee to the effect that youth organisations will be centrally involved in all aspects of the pilot project and the subsequent State-wide youth guarantee?

We are all aware that the cost of youth unemployment is massive. According to one study, the economy loses €3.16 billion annually as a result of our high level of youth unemployment. This roughly equates to 2% of GDP. The cost for young people and their families and communities is equally devastating in economic, social and emotional terms. There is going to be a demographic fallout from our high level of youth unemployment and it prompts us to inquire as to who is going to pay for pensions in the future. The guarantee should not just revolve around putting people in quality jobs today, it should also be about preventing poverty and social exclusion into the future. That is why we need a youth guarantee scheme which is going to assist the 53,800 young people who are currently unemployed to get into training or employment.

I firmly believe that the design, implementation, governance and ongoing evaluation of this scheme should involve the relevant Government Departments, employment services, educational and training services, employers, youth services, youth advocacy organisations and young people. A phrase that was used at the conference I organised was "Nationally led but locally delivered". Timo Mulari of Allianssi, the national youth council of Finland, used the term "public private people partnership" in the context of the implementation of the guarantee. That is something which is very important.

If we learn from previous experience, then the scheme should focus on the long-term unemployed, those with low skill levels, those who are furthest from the labour market and those who are not currently engaging with employment services or who are not involved in formal education or training. Our public employment services have a crucial role to play and they need to be fit for purpose. We need to obtain a real and accurate sense of the number of young people who are unemployed. The scheme should be open to all and not just to those who are currently registered with the public employment services. As everyone is aware, there are many people who are hidden from the live register. These individuals may not, for example, be eligible for jobseeker's benefit or allowance. In addition, they may not be on the radar for some other reason.

An individual needs assessment and personal plan will be required for each person who engages with the youth guarantee process. An important point was raised this morning to the effect that we need to track youths who engage with the youth guarantee system and we must ensure that we are not just shifting them from one scheme to another. We must examine how we can create sustainable situations for them in the aftermath of the initial couple of months for which they are on the youth guarantee scheme. It emerged earlier today that there are no statistics for 39% of those youths who engaged with the youth guarantee scheme in Finland. This means that the Finnish authorities do not know what happened to 39% of those who were involved with the scheme. It is important, therefore, to ensure that tracking is put in place.

Many young people attended last weekend's conference and gave voice to their concerns. One of those concerns relates to the fact that they do not necessarily want to be employees but rather they want to be employers. These young people want to start their own businesses and become entrepreneurs. However, they cannot obtain access to funding and neither can they get loans guaranteed. The youth guarantee will ensure that all young people under the age of 25 receive an offer of good quality employment, continuing education, apprenticeship or traineeship within a period of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. What is going to be incorporated into the guarantee for young people who are unemployed, who want to start their own businesses and who may not require education, training or an apprenticeship? I refer here to individuals who have the idea, who possess the necessary drive and who are ready to go.

My final point relates to costs. If 53,800 of those under 25 are officially unemployed and if best practice - as highlighted by the National Youth Council - places the cost per participant in the scheme at approximately €6,600, we will need approximately €335 million in order to deal with these people. As already stated, those who are off the radar are not included in the 53,800. With youth unemployment so rampant across Europe, our leaders should be collectively considering how we might move towards the estimate produced by the International Labour Organization, ILO, of €21 billion being required to combat youth unemployment as opposed to the €6 billion which has been set aside. Would it be possible for the Government to make strides in this regard either prior to the end of Ireland's Presidency or before the meeting of EU Labour Ministers is held in Berlin on 3 July? Who will be representing Ireland at that meeting?

I referred to the creation of sustainable situations for those exiting the youth guarantee. The Minister, in an article she co-authored, argued in favour of more investment in growth. How are we going to invest in the jobs that will be required in order to get young people who are currently out of work back into employment post the youth guarantee? What is going to be brought forward in that regard?