Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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238. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection her Department’s supports and planned supports for young Irish persons who were forced to emigrate during the recession and who are now returning to secure employment; her Department’s initiatives for supporting returning young persons while new employment is being secured; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34743/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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It is a welcome development that employment has been growing again for three years and that further growth will provide increased opportunities for Irish people abroad to return to work here.

At least some people return because they have already found employment to return to, and others will find employment relatively quickly on their return. The recent CSO population and migration estimates indicate that only 10% of people who had immigrated over the last year (which would include returning emigrants) were unemployed in April 2015.

For those young people who return and have difficulty in finding employment they will receive all the supports available to other young unemployed people. These supports are included in the government’s Pathways to Workstrategy, which details the measures being taken to ensure that as many as possible of the jobs created are taken up by jobseekers and young jobseekers in particular.

As part of Pathways, the government’s Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan 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.