Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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160. To ask the Minister for Social Protection his targets to reduce long-term youth unemployment in terms of specific numbers and percentages in each of the years to 2020; the measures that will be taken to achieve this EU trend; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5204/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Government policy to reduce unemployment is twofold. First, through policies set out in the Action Plan for Jobs, to create an environment in which business can succeed and create jobs; and second, through Pathways to Work to ensure that as many of these new jobs and other vacancies that arise in our economy are filled by people taken from the Live Register, including young people.

To date, these policies have been effective in reducing youth unemployment and long-term youth unemployment in particular. The number of young Irish people who are unemployed for over a year has fallen from a peak of 35,600 in Q4 2011 to 11,900 in Q3 2016. The overall youth unemployment rate has fallen from a peak of 31% in 2012 to 13.5% in January 2015, bringing this rate from well above the EU average in 2012 to well below the EU figure now.

Looking forward, in the context of Pathways to Work 2016-2020, the government has adopted several high-level targets relevant to the question raised:

- Reducing the unemployment rate to between 5% and 6% by 2020

- Bringing youth unemployment to 12% or less by 2020 in the context of an overall unemployment rate of 6% or less;

- Decreasing long-term unemployment to 2.5%.

Targets were not set for intermediate years. However, it seems clear based on the most recent developments in the labour market that these targets are now likely to be achieved or indeed improved on.

A set of milestones and metrics have been developed as indicators of progress in addressing the challenges and delivering on Pathways to Work 2016-2020. Progress on milestones and metrics are published on the Department of Social Protection website and the metrics themselves will be reviewed and updated on an annual basis to reflect the key challenges and issues being addressed under this strategy each year. The relevant data for 2016 targets and outcomes are set out in Table 1. Many of these will directly or indirectly impact upon the reduction of long-term unemployment over the period of the strategy to 2020.

Table 1: Pathways To Work Measures/Metrics and 2016 Targets

I have set out new objectives for 2017 to build on this progress:

- Help another 20,000 people move from welfare into work;

- Develop a Working Family Payment to make work more attractive for families currently on welfare;

- Implement an Action Plan for Jobless Families to zero in on long-term unemployment;

- Launch a new work experience programme to replace the JobBridge scheme that was closed in 2016;

- Recalibrate labour activation schemes like CE and TÚS to focus on those farthest from the labour market;

- Intensify our engagement with employers and boost the take up of JobsPlus, and the Wage Subsidy Scheme for employees with disabilities;

- Promote and make access to the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance easier;

- Work with other Government Departments to overcome the barriers to work including the cost of childcare, transport, education and housing;

- Increase the number of employers participating in the Department’s long-term unemployment and youth activation charter to over 600.

The Pathways to Work 2016-2020strategy continues to prioritise support for the long-term unemployed and young unemployed. This includes the roll-out of the payment-by-results services of JobPath to engage more systematically with the long-term unemployed, including long-term unemployed youth; providing targeted wage subsidies under JobsPlus; and through reserved places for long-term unemployed jobseekers on employment and training programmes.

Pathways to Work 2016-2020additionally commits to: increasing the share of workplace-based interventions for youth unemployed; ensuring that monthly engagement, at a minimum, is consistently applied and maintained; restructuring the First Steps programme; and implementing the Defence Forces Skills for Life programme.

I am confident these measures, and continuing economic recovery, will support further reductions in youth unemployment, both long- and short-term, and add to the substantial improvements that have already been seen over the last few years.