Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and wish her well. The Department of Social Protection has admitted that it will be unable to provide training or employment for more than half of those under 25 on the live register. This has been the focus of some criticism from the OECD and the European Commission which claim Ireland now risks the emergence of a lost generation. While I welcome the figures mentioned by the Minister showing a reduction in youth unemployment, it is still staggeringly high. In budget 2014, the Government stated that €14 million would be provided to roll-out a youth guarantee scheme over the coming months. The provision of €14 million for youth unemployment equates to approximately €232 per person under the age of 25 currently on the live register. The National Youth Council of Ireland estimates that €273 million would be necessary to implement the youth guarantee model in Ireland along the lines of the successful Swedish model.

What is critically important is that the Department of Social Protection has stated that there will be a total of 20,000 training or education places set aside this year for young people who are out of work as part of the youth guarantee while CSO figures estimate that approximately 39,000 plus under 25s have been out of work for three months or more. This leaves a shortfall of almost 20,000 places which means 20,000 people will not be given a youth guarantee and will have to rely on a vastly reduced jobseeker's payment instead.

A total of 20,000 people will not be given a youth guarantee and will have to rely on a greatly reduced jobseeker's allowance instead. A total of 6,993 young people under 25 years of age have been unemployed for over three years. At present, there is only one social welfare employment service officer for every 800 people unemployed. Ireland has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in the EU. No new jobs have yet been created through the NewERA project - which the Minister did not mention - the project which Fine Gael promised would create over 105,000 jobs. The Government's policy of reducing income support to young people with the cut in jobseeker's allowance along with the lack of labour activation measures means that there is often no option for young people other than to emigrate, which is a sad comment on this Government.

Jobseeker's allowance has been slashed to €100 from €144 per week for existing recipients up to and inclusive of people who are 22 years of age from 1 January 2014, a huge and disproportionate reduction. For all new entrants up to and including the age of 24 the allowance has also been reduced from €144 to €100 from 1 January 2014 and for 25 year olds it has been reduced from €188 to €144 from January 2014. These changes will also result in a cut in payment to those engaged in the JobBridge internship programme as interns receive an allowance of only €50 per week on top of their existing social welfare entitlement. There are many gaps in the much-vaunted Government plan to deal with youth unemployment, which the Minister has not addressed.

The use of the rent supplement as a quick fix solution to a long-term problem has resulted in increasing rents for those on low incomes, increased homelessness and ever increasing profits for private landlords. The Government over the past three years has failed to develop a proper social housing plan and is now scrambling to address one of the worst housing crises in the history of the State. Fianna Fáil has published its own national housing strategy which aims to help address the serious shortage of available housing units and the record numbers waiting on social housing lists.

Are staff being redeployed from the Department of Social Protection as part of the move to the housing assistance payment, HAP? There are at least 66 separate computer systems in different local authorities dealing with housing. What resources are being provided to smooth the transition? Can we be assured this will not become another student universal support Ireland, SUSI, Irish Water or medical card fiasco?

The Minister stated that the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has been anxious to see the Department of Social Protection help people to pay their rent by direct deduction at source through the Department. Is that still the intention? Will the Minister ensure that if landlords are in receipt of rent supplement they are fully tax compliant and also that inspections are carried out to ensure properties meet minimum expected standards of accommodation?

Fianna Fáil's national housing strategy, published some weeks ago, aims to increase the housing stock, boost employment in the construction sector, dramatically speed up the transfer of vacant National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, units for social housing and make it easier for local authority tenants to buy their own homes.

Among Fianna Fáil's many proposals are a new home building programme drawn up by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in conjunction with each local authority; Part V teams to ensure that 20% of all new developments is used for social housing; the vacant home refurbishment scheme to open up the large number of vacant homes to families on social housing waiting lists; the establishment of NAMA transfer units at each local authority; the establishment of a national database of rogue developers to inform planning decisions; the establishment of a national planning portal so that citizens can access planning information in each local authority; and the reintroduction of housing adaption grants to allow older people and people with disabilities to live independently at home. The reduction in that local authority grant was shocking and caused enormous distress to older citizens and to people with disabilities.

NAMA has identified 4,319 units as being potentially suitable for social housing but only 1,900 have been confirmed as being suitable and 443 have been completed or contracted. This represents a significant failure to deliver the promised social dividend from NAMA.

In July 2013 the Government approved the introduction of the HAP concept. Under HAP, responsibility for recipients of rent supplement with a long-term housing need will transfer from the Department of Social Protection to local authorities. The implementation of this process has been painfully slow. Officials in the Department have been working with the various agencies in piloting HAP in Limerick City and County Council. Since July 2013 progress has been abysmally slow, despite promises that HAP will be further rolled out to six selected local authorities during the year. HAP will allow one to work and receive some form of rent supplement. It is being introduced to combat the perception that the rent supplement scheme in its current format is a poverty trap. Questions remain, however, as to whether HAP will address the needs of people in receipt of rent supplement.