Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she received a copy of the Being Young and Irish – Take Charge of Change report from the Office of the President, Áras an Uachtaráin as part of President Higgins series of seminars with young persons here which took place in Dublin, Galway, Monaghan and Cork in 2012; if he has noted the Take Charge of Change declaration made by the participants; the steps she has taken arising out of the report’s findings in order to achieve young person’s vision for Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14536/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I have taken note of the Being Young and Irish report and I have noted the Take Charge of Change declaration contained in the report. The report found that young people are understandably concerned about the prospects for graduate employment. The transition from education to work can be very difficult for all young people. International studies show that many young people have to face unemployment for several months, if not years, before finding their first job after leaving education. Although a period of transition is normal, a slow or difficult transition to the labour market can have a lasting impact on an individual’s career and future income. Of particular concern is that two out of every five young unemployed people are out of work for more than one year. Difficulties in the transition to working life tend to be more acute for those who have left education with few or no qualifications.

In this context, it is a welcome development that the most recent official labour market figures published by the CSO indicated that the number of young unemployed at the end of 2012, at 59,000, showed a reduction of almost 9,000 on the same time a year earlier. It is to be hoped that this is the beginning of a sustained downward movement in youth unemployment as the economy recovers. However, notwithstanding the recent decline, the level of youth unemployment is still unacceptably high.

I note that the report emphasises the importance of stimulating the economy to foster jobs for young people. Indeed, the Government’s primary strategy to tackle youth unemployment is to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth, and past experience suggests that youth unemployment, which tends to rise relatively rapidly in a downturn, can be expected to fall relatively rapidly during the recovery.

However, until the economy fully recovers the Government also recognises the need for interim measures. In this context, I am aware that feedback contained in the report suggests that young people perceive that labour market activation programmes are not for new graduates. The Government’s main strategy for helping the unemployed into employment - Pathways to Work - has specific targets for increasing the number of people who are long-term unemployed moving into employment and reducing the average length of time spent on the Live Register.

This involves focusing resources on those (including young people) who are already out of work for some time, or who are clearly at risk of becoming long-term unemployed. As two out of five young unemployed are long-term unemployed, these targets are relevant to young people. As a result, many young people, including graduates, are availing of the State’s activation programmes.

Long-term unemployed youth will benefit from the JobsPlus initiative which is designed to encourage employers to recruit long-term unemployed people. Under this scheme the State will pay circa €1 of every €4 it costs the employer to recruit a person off the Live Register. Given that young people normally benefit most when employers start hiring, they are likely to be particular beneficiaries of this initiative.

MOMENTUM, a new initiative launched in 2013, has a specific youth component. MOMENTUM will support the provision of free education and training projects to allow 6,500 jobseekers (who are unemployed for 12 months or more) to gain skills and to access work opportunities in identified growing sectors. MOMENTUM consists of 4 themes, of which theme 4 is dedicated to under 25s.

In addition, the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) scheme run by my Department provides income maintenance for unemployed people returning to further or higher education. Over 6,500 young people participated in the BTEA in the last academic year. The qualifying period for BTEA is 3 months on the live register for second-level courses and 9 months on the live register for third-level courses.

While these programmes focus on the longer term unemployed, assistance is also provided at earlier stages of job-search for those who have become unemployed either through losing a job or on leaving education.

In terms of job-search assistance, some 24,500 young people registered with Employment Services in 2012, representing 35% of all registrants. About one in six of these young people seeking job-search assistance had further or higher education qualifications. In 2012, there were some 33,000 referrals of persons aged under 25 to the Department’s activation services, affecting approximately 26,000 individual jobseekers (those who do not attend initially are referred again). Of those referred, 68% of clients had signed off the Live Register by the end of the year.

There are a number of schemes/programmes available that are focussed on work experience. The most relevant for young people are JobBridge (the National Internship Scheme), and its predecessor the Work Placement Programme. Over 1,500 young people are currently participating on these schemes. The total number of placements of young people on JobBridge during 2012 was 2,700. These programmes may be undertaken after three months’ unsuccessful job search.

Approximately 12,000 persons aged under 25 completed a training course with FÁS in 2012 (excluding apprenticeships and evening courses). Training allowances on eligible courses exceed what a young person would receive in jobseekers’ payments, providing an incentive to take up training programmes. Training courses relevant to the individual job-seeker’s needs are available to all young unemployed.

The European Commission recently proposed a Council Recommendation on a European-wide approach to a “Youth Guarantee”. The Council Recommendation -- which received political agreement from EU employment ministers last month -- recommends that each Member State should ensure that young people receive a quality offer of employment or of continued education, an apprenticeship or traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed. In advance of the anticipated adoption of the Recommendation, the government will review the current range of youth employment and training policies in Ireland, including measures specifically aimed at graduates, to assess what measures will need to be taken to commence the gradual implementation of the guarantee.

Finally, the report refers to young people’s perception of social welfare and the fairness of its distribution. I would note that the main measure of the fairness of social welfare transfers is the extent to which they impact on poverty, and that the Irish system performs relatively well in this regard. In 2011, social transfers reduced the at-risk-of-poverty rate in Ireland from 40 per cent to 16 per cent. This equates to a poverty reduction effect of 60 per cent. Though a slight dis-improvement on the 2010 figure of 62.4 per cent, the 60 per cent figure compares very favourably with the 2005 rate of 42 per cent, an improvement of 18 percentage points. The Irish “poverty reduction” rate is amongst the highest in the EU, where the average is 35 per cent; in other member states most affected by the crisis, the rate is less than 30 per cent.

These data show the Government’s commitment to protecting the most vulnerable and should alleviate concerns about the fairness and effectiveness of the social welfare system.