Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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354. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if the European Commission Memo 13/984 of 12 November 2013 which indicates that Ireland has been given a provisional allocation of €63.66 million from the €3 billion youth employment initiative will be increased; the efforts that are being made by her Department to increase this allocation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50328/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Negotiations on the regulations for the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI), and for the European Social Fund more generally, are almost concluded. The Government has sought to maximise the possible benefits to Ireland in these negotiations. It has now been indicated, provisionally, that Ireland will be allocated funding of €63.66 million (at 2011 prices; €68.15 million at current prices) from the YEI in respect of the two-year period 2014-2015. This will need to be matched by at least the same amount of ESF funding.

Given the way the funding is structured, in order to recoup these amounts from the YEI/ESF in due course, it will be necessary for Ireland, in the first instance, to incur eligible expenditure on youth employment initiatives of approximately €200 million over this two-year period, and to apply subsequently for recoupment from the EU. It is expected that actual expenditure by Ireland on youth employment initiatives will be substantially in excess of this €200 million minimum. The first EU refunds would become available during 2015 at the earliest, based on our actual spend in 2014.

Allocations from the YEI for 2014 and 2015 are based on agreed criteria. Ireland’s allocation is based on the average number of young people unemployed here in 2012, and the proportion this represented of all unemployed young people across the EU regions eligible for YEI (essentially regions that had youth unemployment rates over 25% in 2012). No further changes to these criteria are expected.