Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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498. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the total expenditure on the Youth Guarantee in 2014 and 2015 and the actual or anticipated contribution of European Union funding in both years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13407/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government’s Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan (YGIP) identifies planned activity levels for young people on a range of programmes, and estimates the share of the budget for these that will therefore be spent on young people. Running costs of the Intreo employment and benefits service cannot reasonably be allocated across age groups – given that, for example, individual staff deal with both young and older unemployed clients in their day-to-day work. Therefore data on the actual total expenditure on the Youth Guarantee for the years 2014 and 2015 are not readily available. The YGIP also details how the Youth Guarantee is to be funded through the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) and European Social Fund (ESF). The YEI is being delivered in Ireland as a dedicated priority axis within the ESF Operational Programme for Education, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) 2014-2020, for which the Irish Managing Authority is the Department of Education and Skills.

I am informed that the total amount allocated to YEI under PEIL is €204,436,257. This allocation is comprised of €68,145,419 of specific EU funding for YEI, with matching amounts from Ireland’s ESF allocation and from Exchequer funding.

It is intended to claim funding in respect of expenditure on certain programmes which make up Ireland’s response to the EU Recommendation on a Youth Guarantee, including Youthreach, the JobsPlus Incentive Scheme and Momentum.

The overall range of such programmes is set out in the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan, which estimated annual expenditure on the core programmes involved of approximately €336 million, with a further expenditure on other relevant programmes (Apprenticeship and PLC courses) of €192 million.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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499. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the planned provision and participation by young persons on the various schemes and programmes under the Youth Guarantee in 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13408/16]

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 is estimated at 15.0% (27,900 persons) in May 2016 and has fallen from a peak of over 30% at the trough of the recession.

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 Workstrategy 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 engaging with the Intreo Service. 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 Tús, or through the JobsPlus employment subsidy for private employment.

Places on most of these programmes are demand led. While it was anticipated that take-up on the relevant programmes in 2014 might be as high as 28,000, actual take-up was 23,000. As the economy has improved, inflows into these programmes have decreased further, reflecting the drop in youth unemployment. There were just over 19,000 places taken up in 2015. The number of starters during the first three months of 2016 is detailed in the table. On the basis of the trend in the early part of the year, it is estimated that the full-year intake in 2016 will be somewhat below the 2015 figure of 19,000.

Quarter 1 2016 Starters (information available up to 27th May 2016)

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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501. To ask the Minister for Social Protection to clarify his reply to Parliamentary Question No. 90 of 6 April 2016, which provided data on the number of young persons under 25 years of age who had completed personal progression plans under the Youth Guarantee programme, in view of the reply to Parliamentary Question No. 72 of 7 July 2015, which indicated different and much lower numbers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13410/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I want to assure the Deputy that the most recent figures supplied to him in the Parliamentary Question Number 90 of 6 April 2016 are correct. Unfortunately, when generating figures to response to the earlier Parliamentary Question Number 72 of 7 July 2015, a miscalculation was made resulting in an incorrect figure being supplied. The provision of this inaccurate figure is regretted.