Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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50. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide an update on the role-out of the Youth Guarantee scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4917/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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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 the availability of productive employment for young people. This strategy has been succeeding, with an increase of over 80,000 in employment over the last 2 years.

Within this framework, the Youth Guarantee sets a medium-term objective of ensuring that young people receive an offer of employment within four months of becoming unemployed. The main plank of the guarantee is assistance to young people in finding and securing sustainable jobs. For those who do not find employment, additional offers are provided for. Most such offers (over 70%) are in further education or training. Others are in community-based employment programmes such as CE, Gateway and Tús, or through the JobsPlus employment subsidy for private employment.

Overall, the Youth Guarantee provides for over 28,000 programme opportunities for unemployed young people in 2014, as set out in the table below. This figure excludes some 24,000 places provided for young people through PLC courses and apprenticeships. These PLC and apprenticeship places, together with the wide range of vocational third-level courses provided for the young, although not reserved for unemployed jobseekers, nevertheless contribute to the spirit of the guarantee.

It is important to note that some of the initiatives planned under the guarantee required primary legislation to allow positive discrimination on age grounds in the provision of employment services and supports. Two employment schemes in particular, the Youth Guarantee developmental internship programme and the JobsPlus variant for young people, were launched in November 2014 after the required legislation was passed in June 2014. The legislation also permits the introduction of earlier and more intensive engagement by INTREO with the young unemployed.

Models for the engagement of young people through Intreo have been agreed and will form the basis of the national roll-out of the Youth Guarantee in 2015. Potential refinement of these models may be considered on the basis of outcomes and learning from the Ballymun Youth Guarantee Pilot Project.

Youth Guarantee Progress YTD: End December 2014