Hildegarde Naughton (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The publication of the youth guarantee implementation plan was a positive step in addressing the difficulties of young people within the State in obtaining employment or suitable educational opportunities. This discussion with the Minister is a welcome occasion to discuss the progress to date. It comes on the back of the Minister's being able to secure agreement on €6 billion of funding during the course of Ireland's Presidency of the EU.

I see some nonsense published recently by the Socialist Party that paints the youth guarantee as some form of forced cheap labour. Nothing could be further from the truth. The scheme is a genuine attempt to assist young people most at risk of long-term unemployment. It provides opportunities for up-skilling and development. The social welfare system we inherited was utterly passive. People became trapped in the system with no encouragement or reward for working.

I emphasise that everything we do as a Government is aimed at helping the less well-off and those out of work. We do it through encouraging people into work and rewarding them for it, not reinforcing an old system that simply has not worked. The State, through a variety of initiatives, is now actively assisting and rewarding people for engaging in training and further education. It is actively assisting people in their search for suitable employment. Anyone who, like the Socialist Party, considers it appropriate that someone be let languish on the dole without being actively encouraged to do anything about it, should take a good hard look at what this means for our future generations and stop the polemics.

What further feedback has the Minister received on the Ballymun pilot project and what further roll-out does she envisage over the course of this year? Have further projects been identified? Does she expect that the envisaged 30,000 young people at high risk of long-term employment will receive the guarantee in 2014?

The amount of funding available is a major concern for all sides. Is the Minister satisfied that she has sufficient resources in place for the current year, given that we are still borrowing, although much less, to keep our welfare and employment support services funded?

This year, the Government has provided €344 million for 77,000 rent supplement recipients. For a scheme that is not intended to provide long-term assistance or as an alternative to other social housing schemes, it seems remarkable to spend a third of a billion euro. While I understand that people are in great need of assistance to pay their housing costs, this is an enormous sum, which could be used more productively.

There remain a vast number of empty estates and apartments in our towns and cities. NAMA retains a sizeable housing stock that presumably, for book-keeping purposes, could be bought by the State. The money spent on rent supplement would go a long way to renovating such property and also towards building new social housing thus alleviating our housing shortage, and thereby reducing demand and rents. I also note that much of the economic commentary on the difficulty in accommodation costs is very insistent that rent controls are not the solution but an increase in building, and supply are.

While house prices in Dublin outstrip the national figures, €344 million would build a minimum of 1,700 houses annually in the capital on today's figures and far more nationwide. If some of the moneys were used to update unused stock, it would go a long way also. There will always be people who will require short-term assistance with their rent. A study could perhaps be undertaken on how so much money would produce a more tangible and lasting result, rather than just help meet increasing rents, as it does at present, which seems possibly counterproductive.

I am not for a moment suggesting that, in the short term, people who are struggling should have their housing benefit cut. When the present difficulties subside, rather than just cut the allocation for rent supplement, the Minister should retain a large portion for investment against future difficulties.