Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

35. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his views on trends in the unemployment figures for persons under 25 years of age; the specific measures that will be taken under the Action Plan for Jobs to improve employment opportunities for young persons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6095/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Government’s Action Plan for Jobs, which is co-ordinated and developed by my Department since 2012, has set out a comprehensive set of measures to address the unemployment challenge for all age cohorts. The 2015 Action Plan for Jobs was launched on January 29th. The Action Plan process is working. Almost 80,000 more people are at work since the launch of the first Action Plan for Jobs in 2012. The CSO data for January 2015 indicates that the number of persons aged 25 on the Live Register and under has fallen to 13.7% from 15.1% in January 2014, a reduction of 11,248 over the year. Indigenous exports and foreign direct investment are at all-time record levels. Our competitiveness ranking internationally has climbed to 15th according to the IMD. The rate of unemployment has declined from a peak of 15.1 per cent at the start of 2012 to below 10.5 per cent in January 2015.

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.

While it is the Pathways to Work strategy that focuses on specific measures to improve employment opportunities for young persons, the steps taken to date under previous Action Plans, and those set out for this year, complement that work and directly assist young job seekers.

The Action Plan for Jobs commits to implementing the 70 actions in Pathways to Work 2015. These include beginning the new account management approach to employers, roll-out JobPath, continuing to roll-out the Youth Guarantee initiatives, and introduce a Back to Work Family Dividend. In addition, as part of Pathways to Work, a new JobsPlus strand for young people will be available in 2015 under the Youth Guarantee. Since its launch in the summer of 2013, over 2,500 employers have availed of the opportunity to give over 3,400 unemployed people on the Live Register a chance to get back into employment.

The Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan was published in January 2014. 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. Passage of 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 Youth Guarantee Pilot Project in Ballymun.

We will continue to focus on improvement in skills provision through the provision of programmes for a diverse range of individuals including young unemployed people through the Education and Training Boards in the implementation of the Further Education Strategy 2014-2018, the Momentum programmes, the recent launch of the fifth iteration of Springboard, offering short higher education courses for jobseekers with previous work experience, employment incentive schemes such as JobsPlus and doubling of high-end skills as part of the second ICT Skills Action Plan. The launch of the call for new apprenticeships should provide further opportunities for young people to find rewarding careers for the future. The HEA will also support the use of third level facilities out of term to promote greater awareness and interest in technology, science and engineering among young people.

In the areas of entrepreneurship, the launch of the Local Enterprise Offices provides a first-stop-shop for young entrepreneurs with an idea or interested in starting a business and we will build on the success of “Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur” competition which was launched in 2014.