Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

All of those are fantastic areas for people with an interest in them to be involved and to be creative.

On fiscal constraints, what we have now in terms of the youth guarantee Europe-wide is a fund of money over the next EU budget period. As this country had high youth unemployment – it has since fallen – when the agreement was brokered at the Heads of State meeting, it was decided that the first two years would be front-loaded because in order to improve economic activity in the country we do not want to wait until the recovery has taken more hold, we want to do it now.

I have been to see the Ballymun pilot project four or five times. A meeting was held last week with Commissioner Andor. People in Senator Reilly’s party are very critical of JobBridge, notwithstanding that party members keep sending me questions on how to expand the scheme, including her party leader. At local level when young people or their parents or relatives say they would like a JobBridge internship, representatives are anxious to facilitate them. I recall one young man at the meeting said he thought doing a CV was, to paraphrase him, rubbish. He was more forthcoming than that. He did not realise that the CV counted if one went to an interview. He had received a very good education but he thought a job would just come. As time passed and the job did not come when he got involved with the Ballymun pilot scheme he realised that CVs and presentation do matter. He now has an internship with a law firm. He commented on the positivity in the room.

Another young man wants to work and develop his own business as a barber and hairdresser. He got an opportunity to find work experience through the internship and he was very hopeful of getting proper training and an apprenticeship and going on to set up his own business. Another young man was interested in sport. Interestingly, he wanted to set up his own gym and to work with young people. There was an air of positivity in the room. I went to Tesco, for instance, which is now running a scheme around the country, thanks to the labour market council. To date, it is rolled out in six different areas. Tesco is going to local Intreo offices to recruit young people, by and large under the age of 22, in conjunction with the local education and training board, to do a FETAC level 4 retail and warehouse qualification. The trainees then have certification for the retail industry and can get employment. It is a very good combination.

I attended initial interviews in Cabra some time ago. As someone who worked in third level for a long time – I really like students and young people – it was a familiar scene with people wearing hoodies sitting with their eyes downcast, looking at their feet wondering who I was, what was going on and when they would get out of there. Many of them took up the places and the course was run by Coláiste Dhúlaig. Senator Barrett, as a fellow educator-----