Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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35. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection how she is addressing the issue of long-term and youth unemployment; the degree to which European Union supports in this regard have been invoked; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1199/16]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Government’s primary strategy to reduce long-term unemployment and youth unemployment is through policies 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; by Q3 2015 the level of employment is up by 140,000 from the lowest level reached in 2012.

The long-term unemployment rate peaked at 9.5% in Q1 2012 before falling to 5.0% in Q3 2015. At the latter date, the long-term unemployed accounted for 54.1% of all those unemployed, down from almost 65% in early 2012.

Despite these improvements, the level of long-term unemployment, continues to be of concern. The Pathways to Work Strategy therefore provides for enhanced engagement services and additional activation measures to jobseekers while the recovery takes hold. In addition to ongoing reforms, the 2015 iteration of the strategy prioritises additional measures to enhance engagement with the long-term unemployed. This includes a structured process of engagement with long-term unemployed people being referred to the activation process (Group Engagement followed by regular one-to-one case officer contact). Second, a new contracted employment services model for the long-term unemployed, JobPath, began in the second half of 2015 and it will be fully rolled out to all Intreo offices by Q1 2016. It is a payment by results contract model with third party providers of employment services that will provide additional capacity in order to engage more systematically with long-term unemployed jobseekers.

In support of these enhanced engagement processes, 57,000 FET places were reserved for the long-term unemployed in 2015. A minimum of 16,000 places for the long-term unemployed were also provided through key public employment programmes. This includes an expansion of the JobsPlus initiative, an employment subsidy that incentivises employers to recruit the long-term unemployed.

A core focus of the Pathways to Workstrategy for the period 2016-2020 will be continued prioritisation of those long-term unemployed.

Youth unemployment was 19.2% (36,200 persons) in December 2015 and has fallen from a peak of 31.1% in July 2012. The Government recognises that as the recovery takes hold, there is a need for additional measures to ensure that as many as possible of the jobs created are taken up by jobseekers and young jobseekers in particular. This is the rationale behind the Government’s Pathways to Work strategy and the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan.

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. In 2015 monthly engagement by case officers with all young unemployed was implemented. 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 Tus, or through the JobsPlus employment subsidy for private employment.

The Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan provided for over 28,000 programme opportunities for unemployed young people in 2014 and the same in 2015. 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.

A number of the programmes provided for both young and long-term unemployed, across a range of government departments, benefit to varying degrees from support under EU structural funds.