Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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124. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of young persons not in education, training or employment; the current percentage of youth unemployment; the way this number compares to the EU average; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40223/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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It is estimated by the Department of Social Protection based on micro-data from the CSO Quarterly National Household Survey that in the four quarters to Q2 2016 the average number of young persons not in employment, education or training (NEETs) was approximately 72,000 or 13.8% of the population aged 15-24. It should be noted that the way in which the EU-defined NEET concept is measured means that, in Ireland, it includes a significant number of young people who are in fact full-time students on short breaks from their studies. Excluding this group, the number of “non-student” NEETs averaged 50,000 over the last year, or 9.6% of the young adult population.

The current rate of youth unemployment as reported by the CSO is 15.5% (November 2016). The most recent comparable data at the EU level are for October 2016, when the youth unemployment rate was 18.4% in the EU overall and 20.7% in the Eurozone.