Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. However, what is happening with JobBridge is a cause for concern. I have seen cases where small businesses take on a large number of JobBridge people, but there is no guarantee that any of them will be kept on when their placement is finished.

Returning to the question of funding for the youth guarantee scheme, the National Youth Council of Ireland points out that there is strong support for the provision of a significant portion of the next round of EU social funding to tackle youth unemployment and support the implementation of initiatives such as the youth guarantee. Will the Minister comment on that? The idea behind the guarantee is that support would be offered to young people within four months of their becoming unemployed. There has been a suggestion, however, that the Department might extend that eligibility period out to nine months because of a lack of resources and the shortage of available training places. In a situation where 45,000 people are eligible for the scheme but only some 22,000 training and education places will be made available, how does the Minister propose to address the shortfall of 22,000 plus places? We are talking about more than 20,000 people who will not be offered a place under the scheme and will have to rely on a vastly reduced jobseeker's payment. I hope the Minister can offer some assurance in this regard.