Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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187. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the progress to date in addressing the issue of youth unemployment; the extent to which he expects to meet targets in this regard in the course of 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12041/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government’s primary strategy to reduce 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 Q1 2016 the level of employment is up by 159,000 from the lowest level reached in 2012.

Youth unemployment was estimated at 15.3% (28,300 persons) in April 2016 and has fallen from a peak of 31.2% 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 (YGIP).

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 people 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 Tús, or through the JobsPlus employment subsidy for private employment.

Pathways to Work 2016 to 2020 sets specific targets in relation addressing youth unemployment by continuing to implement the actions set out in the Youth Guarantee implementation plan. In addition it commits to four additional actions: 1) increase the relative share of workplace-based interventions (Gateway, TÚS, Positive to Work etc.) for youth unemployed; 2) to ensure the frequency of engagement with all young unemployed people is a minimum of one case officer meeting per month; 3) restructure the First Steps programme for young unemployed people to improve take-up by offering a higher level of support to jobseekers and employers - these consolidate reforms undertaken in previous Pathways to Work strategies; and the fourth action, to implement the Defence Forces Skills for Life employment support programme, is a new programme. Actions are in progress and on target, or in the case of restructuring the First Steps programme, will be taking place shortly.