Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

132. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she has submitted her Department's plan for the implementation of the youth guarantee in Ireland; the actions in this plan; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2194/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The EU Council Recommendation on The Youth Guarantee is that member states should:

“Ensure that all young people under the age of 25 years receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within a period of four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education.”

In agreeing this recommendation, the EU accepted that the Guarantee would need to be implemented over a period of time on a phased basis in countries such as Ireland facing very significant fiscal constraints.

The development of an implementation plan for the guarantee was led by the Department working with the support of an interdepartmental group of senior officials from the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of the Tánaiste. In developing the plan the interdepartmental group took account of submissions received as part of a consultative process with stakeholders, and the outputs from various EU meetings, including meetings of EU Heads of State. The Group also consulted with the OECD.

After getting approval from Cabinet late last year, the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan was finalised and forwarded to the EU Commission at the end of December. The Minister for Education and Skills and I are publishing this plan today. The OECD report on the development of a Youth Guarantee for Ireland will be published at the same time.

The plan brings together all Government measures in 2014 across a range of Departments that contribute to the transition of young people from education to work, and from unemployment to work.

In keeping with the Government’s broader focus on tackling long-term unemployment, the plan will in the first instance target interventions at those young people most at risk of long-term unemployment as the Guarantee is introduced on a phased basis.

Ireland already has most of the key elements of a Youth Guarantee, as identified by the EU, in place including:

- A quality offer of second level education for all young people under 18.

- Second chance education/training options for early school leavers via Youthreach and Community Training Centres.

- Access to free third-level and further education programmes.

- Apprenticeship and work-focussed training initiatives such as Momentum.

- State supported Internships such as JobBridge.

- Targeted employment subsidies such as JobsPlus.

- Work experience options such as TÚS and Gateway.

- Reformed employment services which combine the delivery of welfare with job search/guidance services and employer engagement (at Intreo centres and via JobsIreland).

In order to maximise the return from structures already in place, the Youth Guarantee will build on existing programmes and:

- Reserve places on existing programmes for young people who are already long-term unemployed.

- Develop variants of these programmes/offers tailored specifically for unemployed young people. These tailored offers will include:

- Earlier and faster engagement for young people under Intreo.

- New options under JobBridge for the most disadvantaged cohort of young people.

- New options under the JobsPlus recruitment subsidy scheme to accelerate the entry to work of young people.

- Enterprise supports to help young people start their own businesses.

It is estimated that expenditure on programmes providing employment, training and further education opportunities for young people will be in excess of €500m in 2014. This refers to both existing and new funding, including the EU funding that is expected to be drawn down.

As part of this overall 2014 provision and as an initial step towards preparing for implementation of the Guarantee, specific provision was made in the 2014 Budget for:

- Reducing the threshold (in terms of duration of unemployment) for JobsPlus eligibility from 12 months to 4 months in the case of persons aged less than 25 years.

- An additional intake of 1,500 young people on to the very successful JobBridge scheme.

- Ensuring that 1,000 places on the Tús scheme are targeted at young people.

- Developing a pilot programme to support young unemployed people to take up opportunities under schemes such as Your First EURES Job.

- Ring-fencing a minimum of 2,000 training places for under-25s by the Department of Education and Skills, under a follow-up to the successful Momentum programme that operated in 2013, with income support for participants being provided by the Department of Social Protection.

- The Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation making €2.5m available to young entrepreneurs via Micro Finance Ireland and other business start-up schemes.

In total, the provision across these specific headings in the 2014 Budget comes to €46 million.