Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister committed last night to the provision of 20,000 places, therefore, we know there is a shortfall. In the budget document there is a commitment to the allocation of €14 million towards the youth guarantee scheme but €32 million is being taken away. Whatever way one's adds up the figures there is a shortfall.

I am not here to mince my words; I am here to say let us do good by our young people. Let us invest in them and let us be targeted. The Pathways to Work strategy is in place, young people access the Intreo service and there is a link up of services. If a person has completed a degree or a post-leaving certificate course, there is a pathway for him or her. I want the same approach to be taken with regard to these opportunities. Given that we are so far down the road on this, I do not know why the Minister is not grabbing this, although perhaps she will, as a fairly constructive proposal. It is simply saying that the Minister will accept, by early 2014, to lay a report before the Oireachtas on how the €32 million will be reinvested in productive targeted education, training and activation measures. If the Minister is not prepared to accept that, why not? Is it that something is being covered up, which it should not be? If she is not prepared to accept that, she should tell us why she is not prepared to do so.