Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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120. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which he expects job creation over the next three years to focus on youth unemployment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29288/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The aim of the Action Plan for Jobs is to support enterprise growth and job creation for all age cohorts. While we have made great progress in addressing our unemployment and competitiveness challenges and in building a new, sustainable enterprise economy driven by skills, innovation and success in markets, we need to sustain the momentum and stretch ourselves further if we are to achieve sustainable full employment by 2018 and ensure that all parts of our regions benefit from the recovery.

Over 104,000 more people are at work since the launch of the first Action Plan for Jobs in 2012. The CSO data for June 2015 indicates that the number of persons aged under-25 on the Live Register has fallen by 22,300 over the two years since June 2013. This is equivalent to a decrease of 38 per cent over the last two years, which compares favourably with the overall rate of decline in the numbers unemployed on a Live Register basis of 28 per cent over the period. As a result, the proportion of the unemployed that are under-25 years of age has declined from 20.2 per cent in June 2013 to 17.6 per cent of the unemployed in June 2015. The overall rate of unemployment has declined from a peak of 15.1 per cent at the start of 2012 to 9.7 per cent in June 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.

My Department and agencies are working with other Departments and supporting the work of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) and the new Apprenticeship Council in advising on future enterprise skills needs and ensuring that education and training provision is providing our young people with the skills required to take up available employment opportunities. In particular we are focusing on the education and training provision in the areas where we see future job opportunities arising from both expansion and replacement demand for a range of occupational roles including in ICT, data analytics, manufacturing, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, international sales and marketing, project management, freight transport, distribution and logistics – including warehousing and growth in the hospitality sector.

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.

The Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan was published in January 2014. The Youth Developmental Internship, First Steps, is an additional measure to provide youth with valuable work. This will offer young jobseekers aged between 18 and 25 the opportunity to gain valuable work experience and training with the help of dedicated assistance from department of Social Protection case officers. The target is to provide up to 1,500 work experience placements of six to nine months duration for young job seekers during 2015. Earlier and more intensive engagement by Intreo with the young unemployed will also be introduced. 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.

There will be a continuing 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.

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

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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121. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which the lack of working capital continues to be identified by indigenous small enterprises in the manufacturing and services sectors as an obstacle to expansion, and his plans to address this issue. [29289/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Government policy since coming to office in 20111 has focused on supporting SMEs in accessing appropriate finance for both working capital and investment. The Action plan for Jobs process has specifically targeted access to finance issues as being central to the welfare of business. Under this process the SME State Bodies Group, chaired by the Department of Finance, was established and works to deliver on this agenda for all SMEs. A number of key policy initiatives have been developed which are contributing to the evolution of a more robust and effective platform for the financing of SMEs. These include:

- The establishment of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) providing up to €800 million of funds;

- The development of an innovative SME State Support On-line tool to provide an individual with a list of the possible government business supports available to their particular business;

- Government agreement to amend the Credit Guarantee Act 2012 and introduce a new more flexible Credit Guarantee Scheme;

- The review of Microfinance Fund Ireland (MFI).

A recent credit demand survey conducted by Red C for the Department of Finance has found that improved trading conditions mean that far fewer companies are seeking credit in order to survive day to day financial pressures. Only just under half (48%) of those SMEs seeking finance between October 2014 and March 2015 did so for working capital needs, compared to 61% in the previous period. Improved turnover and profit have led to SMEs suggesting they fund working capital through internal funding/retained earnings (64%).

This Survey also shows banks are currently more likely to approve funding for working capital (69%) than for growth (61%). Decline rates for growth stand at 18%, with the decline rate for working capital at just 13%. Of course any SME who has been refused bank credit or has issues with the terms and conditions offered can appeal these decisions to the Government’s Credit Review Office.

As the economy moves into a new phase of growth there is an opportunity to further develop a policy agenda that addresses some of the structural constraints in the financing of the SME sector such as the need for improved payment practices in Ireland.

One initiative to improve payment performance in Ireland is the Government requirement that all central Government Departments pay their suppliers within 15 calendar days of receipt of a valid invoice. The recent launch of the Prompt Payment Code (PPC) portal is another important step in addressing the culture of late payments in Ireland. These initiatives, together with the late payment legislation, demonstrate the Government’s continuing drive and commitment to encourage a prompt payment culture in Ireland.

Building on the progress to date and further supporting the financing of growth within the SME sector will require a clear focus on how best to maximise the benefits to SMEs of the evolving financial landscape in Ireland. Our continued focus is on the adoption and delivery of actions that contribute to developing a more diversified and competitive financial system, capable of financing the growth potential of Irish SMEs

As a Government we will continue to maintain our focus on assisting SMEs to establish, scale and export in order to ensure that they continue to drive our economic recovery and create further jobs.