Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 103: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment her plans to ensure that persons in the age group 18 to 25 years, that are in education or training and availing of jobseeker's allowance, will be able to proceed to either further training, education, or employment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5928/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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To enable unemployed individuals, including those who are aged between 18 and 25 years of age, to continue to access education, training and work experience programmes, the Government has significantly expanded existing activation provision. For instance, my Department will this year deliver approximately 147,000 training and work experience places for the unemployed compared to the 66,000 places that were delivered in 2008.

This additional provision has been achieved through increased resources, providing an increased range of different course types and introducing new initiatives such as the work placement programme. Under this programme, participants can avail of a work experience placement of up to nine months. In addition, there is also specific provision aimed at early school leavers such as the Youthreach programme, which currently has 6,000 places.

As there are no limits on the number of FÁS training interventions that an individual can receive, all individuals are free to take up further training courses upon the completion of the programme they are currently on subject to availability.

It has also been decided that certain cohorts of the unemployed are accorded priority access to the current range of supports. These cohorts are as follows:

· People with low skills or education levels, i.e. unemployed people who do not have a leaving certificate qualification or equivalent;

· People who are on the live register for long periods (over one year)- this includes people who are in receipt of jobseeker's allowance/benefit for one year or longer;

· People who are under 35 years of age, with at least 30% of training places reserved for those aged under 25 years;

· People who were previously employed in sectors that have been most affected by restructuring and where recovery to near previous levels is not in prospect in the short to medium term (mainly construction, manufacturing and wholesale/retail trade).

As the under 25s account for 19.6% of those currently on the live register I am seeking to ensure that young people will have enhanced access to FÁS labour market activation provision this year.