Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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271. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her Department’s progress in preparing the youth guarantee implementation action plan due to be submitted to the European Union authorities this month. [52860/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department of Social Protection has set up an interdepartmental Youth Guarantee Implementation Group with officials and programme managers from the Department of Education and Skills, Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation, and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. The terms of reference for this group are to review the current range of youth employment policies in Ireland to assess what measures will need to be taken to commence the implementation of the Guarantee.

The Department held a stakeholders’ consultation forum in relation to the Guarantee on October 14, and has also invited further submissions from the bodies that attended.

The Department of Social Protection has also requested the assistance of the OECD in developing the implementation plan. In particular the OECD has been asked to identify best international practice and how it might best be applied to implementation of the Youth Guarantee in Ireland. A delegation from the OECD has already met with stakeholders at the forum mentioned above as well as with a range of relevant public bodies. They will be presenting an interim report this week.

The development of the plan is also drawing on expert work already carried out by the European Commission over the last few years, and in particular the Commission Staff Working Document (SWD) accompanying the Proposal for a Council Recommendation on Establishing a Youth Guarantee, published in December 2012.

The Department appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee (JOC) on Education and Social Protection on November 6th in order to provide a comprehensive update on the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan. Also present at the JOC were representatives of various Youth Guarantee Stakeholders including the National Youth Council of Ireland and the Union of Students of Ireland. The session was streamed live on the RTE website.

It is intended to produce a concrete plan for the implementation of the Guarantee for consideration by the Government shortly