Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. This matter on the Adjournment is about the youth guarantee. I know that the youth guarantee implementation plan was forwarded to the European Commission at the end of December, and it is my understanding that the Minister for Social Protection is making arrangements for its publication. The plan itself is supposed to clarify how the partnerships between the public authorities, employment services, education and training providers, social partners, youth organisations and other stakeholders will be organised.

A Council recommendation on 22 April 2013 on establishing the youth guarantee stated the following.

The starting point for delivering the Youth Guarantee to a young person should be the registration with an employment service, and for those NEETs who are not registered with an employment service, Member States should define a corresponding starting point to deliver the Youth Guarantee within the same four month time- frame.

I am raising this point after consultations I had in Ballymun with various groups in respect of the pilot project.  Representatives of a youth group who work with young people of all ages were only invited to a meeting and essentially just told what was happening. There was no consultation and there was no indication of any symbiotic relationship that developed between the implementation group or the youth group on how best to achieve positive outcomes for the young people in the area.

Something even more startling was an issue raised by one of the service providers of the pilot project, who informed me that the pilot was only aimed at young people on the live register. Is this case? What about the Council recommendation that an alternative starting point should be established for those not registered with the public employment services? How is the Department proposing to deal with those young people? If the pilot itself does not have such a corresponding starting point and youth groups and organisations are not feeding into the process, are we not running the risk of having a guarantee for some young people but not all? This is inherently unfair. There should not be a narrow-minded focus just on the live register numbers.

Is the guarantee for one step in a person's life, or for a process of personal development in a life career?

For example, are we guaranteeing just one intervention or what further steps will be taken to ensure it is not a case of one has had one's chance, the boxes have been ticked and one has been given X, Y or Z and then one has to find the next step the person's progression, irrespective of whether that person is back on the live register within a short period.

Given that we have heard of upswings in employment, it is important to support young people with a quality education, training and apprenticeship opportunities in order that they can get jobs when they become available. There is a need to ensure the development of the person in terms of a career, not just putting him or her in any old job. There is a danger that without these supports, whether basic literacy supports, mentoring, skill sampling or others, some young people could be left behind. That is the reason the youth guarantee must deliver quality places and avenues of progression for all young job seekers and not only those registered with the employment services. That is the reason I am interested to know how the implementation plan is proceeding and when it will be published.