Noel Rock (Dublin North West, Fine Gael)
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332. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will provide a breakdown of participants in the youth guarantee nationally in the past three years; the number of participants that were offered full time employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11947/17]

Noel Rock (Dublin North West, Fine Gael)
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334. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of private sector employers that have engaged with the youth guarantee scheme to date; the number that have offered full time employment to participants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11949/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 332 and 334 together.

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. The youth unemployment rate has fallen from 31.1% in July 2012 to 14.5% in February 2017. The actual number of young unemployed has fallen from 70,000 to 30,500 over this period. Irish youth unemployment is now significantly below the EU average.

As many of the elements of a Youth Guarantee were already in place in Ireland prior to the EU Recommendation, the implementation of the Irish Youth Guarantee focused on enhancing processes and policies for assisting young unemployed people to find and secure sustainable jobs. To this end there is monthly engagement by case officers with all young unemployed to facilitate their return to employment.

Places on most of these programmes are demand led, and take-up by young people has fallen in line with the substantial fall in youth unemployment. The number of young people entering the programmes was 23,000 in 2014 and 19,000 in 2015. Final figures for 2016 are not yet available, but are expected to show a further fall on the 2015 level.

While systemised data are not readily available on employment outcomes on all programmes specifically for those jobseekers under 25, some indicative figures are available. For example:

- The evaluation of JobBridge by Indecon (report published October 2016), shows on the basis of self-reported survey results that 61% of interns aged 20 to 24 years (and 53.8% of those aged 15-19) were currently in employment at the time of the survey. Overall, individuals similar to those who participated in JobBridge had a 36.6% probability of securing employment within one year, whereas the JobBridge interns’ probability of securing employment within one year increased to 48.4% (an 11.8 percentage point difference and a 32% increase in the probability of becoming employed). 70% of participants were engaged by private sector host organisations.

- JobsPlus provides subsidies to employers for the full-time employment of those formerly long-term unemployed on the Live Register. Between 2014 and 2016 a total of 2167 participants aged under 25 benefited from JobsPlus in 1,757 private sector companies.

I am confident that the measures taken under the Youth Guarantee, together with the continuing economic recovery, will support further reductions in youth unemployment.

Noel Rock (Dublin North West, Fine Gael)
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333. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the criteria in place to assess whether job offers under the youth guarantee scheme are quality offers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11948/17]

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. The youth unemployment rate has fallen from 31.1% in July 2012 to 14.5% in February 2017. The actual number of young unemployed has fallen from 70,000 to 30,500 over this period. Irish youth unemployment is now significantly below the EU average.

As many of the elements of a Youth Guarantee were already in place in Ireland prior to the EU Recommendation, the implementation of the Irish Youth Guarantee focused on enhancing processes and policies for assisting young unemployed people to find and secure sustainable jobs. To this end there is monthly engagement by case officers with all young unemployed to facilitate their return to employment.

The quality of a job offer is retrospectively defined as a job offer that leads to sustainable employment. The Department of Social Protection participates in the EU-wide annual data collection to monitor progress on the Youth Guarantee, which includes tracking the employment outcomes of the young unemployed over 6, 12 and 18 months. In relation to the year 2014, the data showed that almost 31,000 young people who had been wholly unemployed and receiving job-seeker’s payments exited unemployment to take up jobs during that year. Two-thirds of this group were still in employment 18 months later. Initial indications are that the follow-up information for those who exited unemployment in 2015 (which will be available in mid-2017) will show a broadly similar pattern of outcomes.

On this basis, a significant proportion of the young unemployed can be assessed as having taken up a quality job offer, in line with the Youth Guarantee Recommendation.

Noel Rock (Dublin North West, Fine Gael)
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335. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will provide a list of all programmes run nationwide by the State under the youth guarantee scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11950/17]

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. The youth unemployment rate has fallen from 31.1% in July 2012 to 14.5% in February 2017. The actual number of young unemployed has fallen from 70,000 to 30,500 over this period. Irish youth unemployment is now significantly below the EU average.

As many of the elements of a Youth Guarantee were already in place in Ireland prior to the EU Recommendation, the implementation of the Irish Youth Guarantee focused on enhancing processes and policies for assisting young unemployed people to find and secure sustainable jobs. To this end there is monthly engagement by case officers with all young unemployed to facilitate their return to employment. For those who do not find employment, additional offers are provided for, on a range of education, training and employment programmes. The main programmes involved over the period 2014-2016 were identified in the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan, and are summarised in tabular form below.

Table 1: Programmes available to the young unemployed set out in the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan

I am confident that the measures taken under the Youth Guarantee, together with the continuing economic recovery, will support further reductions in youth unemployment. If you require any further assistance with this query please do not hesitate to contact my office.