Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Question 87: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his policy on tackling long-term unemployment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13156/12]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Question 99: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his policy on addressing youth unemployment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13174/12]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 87 and 99 together.

The Quarterly National Household Survey for the fourth quarter of 2011 shows that 60% of those who are unemployed have been out of work for 12 months or more. Unemployment amongst people under 25 years of age is running at approximately 30%. The Government has recognised that these levels of unemployment could become a structural problem for our society unless the situation is addressed quickly.

There are two major elements to the Government's response to unemployment – the Action Plan for Jobs and "Pathways to Work". The Action Plan includes a total of 270 specific measures to be delivered across the whole of Government. Pathways to Work will be delivered by the Departments of Social Protection and Education & Skills, and the relevant bodies under their aegis.

The goal of the Action Plan for Jobs is to support the creation of new jobs in the economy, while the aim of Pathways to Work is to help to ensure that as many of those jobs as possible are filled by people from the Live Register. Both documents are fundamentally linked and recognise the need to reform our policies and our structures to secure long-term and lasting results for our enterprise base and for job-seekers.

The Action Plan for Jobs has set a target of supporting the creation of 100,000 net new jobs over the period 2012 to 2016, with the longer term objective of having 2 million people at work by 2020. Pathways to Work has five major strands, covering:

- more regular and ongoing engagement with people who are unemployed,

- greater targeting of activation places and opportunities,

- incentivising the take-up of opportunities,

- incentivising employers to provide more jobs for people who are unemployed, and

- reforming institutions to deliver better services to people who are unemployed.

The public employment services will be reformed through the creation of the new National Employment and Entitlements Service which will provide better targeted services to both job seekers and employers. The new service will include the provision of recruitment and job-matching services for employers to facilitate the hiring of workers from the Live Register.

Under Pathways to Work, the Department of Social Protection is committed to supporting over 85,000 beneficiaries in job placement, work experience and back to education schemes in 2012. The Department of Education and Skills will also provide over 457,000 training and education places, including provision for Early School Leavers. The provision of services to address long term youth unemployment will be continued as part of the Government's activation measures for the unemployed.