Seanad debates

Tuesday, 25 May 2021

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

9:00 am

Photo of Marie SherlockMarie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

We await the roadmap for the reopening of indoor hospitality to be announced today, and it will be very welcome to hear that announcement. I understand that the Government intends to publish a national economic recovery plan at the end of May or on 1 June, according to the Tánaiste's statements last week. In this national economic recovery plan it is absolutely crucial that we see very clear and very specific proposals to assist young workers who now find themselves out of a job or those who are attempting to start their working life or who need to work to try to get themselves through college or education. Last month just short of 70% of all young women between 15 and 24, women who are in the labour force, were out of a job.For men of the same age the figure was 53%. Some will attempt to minimise these figures or cast them aside and say they are only a small share of the overall population in that age group, but that misses the point. The reality is the people in this age group depend on jobs in hospitality, retail and other services. People in these sectors have been out of work for many months.

With the reopening of our economy and with our streets coming to life again some people could be forgiven for thinking that this is a temporary blip for young workers and that all will return to normal in good time. The evidence so far from this pandemic and from previous recessions is to the contrary. Even when shops and hospitality were back open in full last December, the unemployment rate for young men and women remained at the high level of 53% with some 99,700 of those between 15 and 24 years of age remaining out of a job.

The question of job security is relevant. We know that young workers under the age of 25 are almost three times more likely to be on the pandemic unemployment payment rather than the employment wage subsidy scheme. We should not assume that we are going to go back to normal. Instead, we should work off the evidence from previous recessions and recognise that youth unemployment will be one of the major legacies of this pandemic.

My particular appeal today is that when the Government publishes the national economic recovery plan next week, we see clear commitments to deal with the triple problem we now have of the high rate of those not in employment, training or education. The ESRI research has highlighted that this problem was elevated even pre-pandemic. The cohort of 75,000 graduates coming out of college will find it difficult to find work over the coming weeks, months and even in the coming year or two. Those in the hospitality and leisure sectors who are now out of work may not have a job for the foreseeable future.

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