Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In Germany, for example, if a son or daughter achieves an apprenticeship, it would be celebrated just as much as any achievement of a third level place. In other words we lack a "dual" system. It is really important to understand that this is a cultural shift to include young people and to have very limited social acceptance of young people being unemployed during what are potentially their most creative developmental years. It is in this time they transition from being teenagers to becoming young adults, and it is important we understand that.

Last year I set up a labour market council consisting of representatives of a series of very prominent employers, chaired by Mr. Martin Murphy from HP and including big companies in Ireland, ranging from Tesco to Glanbia. The council includes many labour market economists, including the former deputy secretary general of the OECD, Mr. John Martin, who people like Senator Barrett would know well. Companies now put up posters in supermarkets, for example, outlining where food is sourced, and I want to see posters in supermarkets indicating they employ young local people and give them a chance. In fairness to many big supermarkets, particularly those based heavily in Ireland, that has begun to happen, partly through the labour market forum and also through Feeding Ireland's Future, an initiative we started last autumn. To quote a cliché, one can go from the farm to the fork in employment terms for Ireland and find a significant number of people working in the area.

Some of the larger supermarkets employ as many as 15,000 people, and in the course of a year there can be vacancies. Employers must select suitable employees and in the course of a year, we can ensure those vacancies or a proportion thereof go to young unemployed people or other unemployed people. This approach starts with young people but it facilitates teaching and learning in the Department about all unemployed people. We need a cultural shift so that when employers have ten vacancies, they will call the local Intreo office to outline how they want to recruit ten people with a particular profile. With the new Intreo offices we have improved information technology and we can source the kind of people these employers want and send them to interview. It is really important for people to understand that.

This is across all of society. It includes all of us, including people who are public representatives, but in particular employers. People sometimes refer to the turnover or churn on the live register. The important point, as Senator Mooney indicated, is that 50% of young people leave the live register after six months. They do not necessarily need that much help. The people who are hard to reach are those who perhaps had a poor experience in school, and in some cases quit school entirely at 16. They could be longing for a traineeship or apprenticeship where they will work and learn at the same time. Many of my family work in the building trade. Young men in particular who want to work in the building trade do not want to be corralled inside a schoolroom, as they would see it. After they reach 17 or 18 they want to be out working. Everyone present knows such young people. We just have to change our attitude. Apprenticeships related to the motor trade are much sought after by young people, particularly young men. We must encourage that and see it as being as valuable a contribution to employment, work and services in Ireland as a career in IT. Not everyone wants to be a software engineer.

I accept the point made by Senators on the arts, heritage and the environment.