Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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169. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount drawn down by his Department each year since 2014 and to date in 2017 under the youth employment initiative; the programmes and initiatives funded in whole or in part with these moneys; the number of participants on each; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21400/17]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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The Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) is one of the main EU financial resources to support the implementation of the EU youth guarantee. It is integrated into European Social Fund (ESF) programming as a dedicated priority axis within the ESF Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning 2014-2020 (PEIL) that was adopted by Commission Decision in February 2015. The specific YEI allocation for Ireland of €68m is matched by equal amounts from our ESF allocation and from the Exchequer, giving an overall allocation of €204m.

The ESF Regulations provide for initial pre-financing/advances of EU support at 1% (or 1.5% for Member States under financial assistance in 2014 and 2015) of the full programme support, payable for each year from 2014 to 2016, together with annual pre-financing of between 2% and 3% payable from 2016 to 2023. In May 2015 an amendment to the relevant EU Regulations resulted in an unprecedented increase in the YEI advances to be paid to Member States. The Commission subsequently released pre-financing payments from the dedicated YEI budget line, worth 30% of the YEI budget, to provide additional financial liquidity to support YEI implementation. However, the relevant Regulations specified that where a Member State did not submit an interim payment application by 23 May 2016 for at least 50% of the additional pre-financing amount, that the Member State must reimburse the Commission the total YEI pre-financing contribution. The ESF regulations also provide that annual pre-financing for any year in which an interim payment application is not made in that year must also be reimbursed.

As Ireland did not submit an interim YEI payment application, the €19.8m additional pre-financing received was reimbursed to the Commission. Furthermore, as there was no ESF application made in 2016, the €11.6m annual pre-financing for 2016, including €1.36m for the YEI, will be offset against the 2017 pre-financing due.  The reimbursement of these amounts has not resulted in any loss of EU monies to the Exchequer. Furthermore, as the YEI activities are fully funded up-front by the Exchequer there is no resulting reduction or delay in the funding available to them. The YEI funding is available for drawdown before the end of 2018 and it is expected that the funding will be fully drawn down.  

The Department of Social Protection has advised that it obtained EU funding under the European Commission’s call for proposals for preparatory actions under the Youth Guarantee Pilot, to pilot a Youth Guarantee Scheme in Ballymun which operated in 2014. The total cost of the pilot was €302,279 which included EU funding of €250,000.

Youth Employment Initiative activities are programmed within Priority Axis 4 of the ESF Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning 2014-2020 (PEIL). Those activities are the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA) Scheme, the JobsPlus Incentive Scheme, Tús, JobBridge, Youthreach, the Social inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) and Momentum. The participant figures requested by the Deputy are currently being compiled and will be provided to the Deputy separately.