Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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50. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will reverse the lower rate of jobseeker's payments for young persons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25951/17]

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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51. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he is considering reversing previous cuts to young persons JSA in the upcoming budget; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26042/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 50 and 51 together.

In line with other EU and OECD jurisdictions where such measures feature, reduced rates for younger jobseeker’s allowance recipients were first introduced in 2009 and extended to those under 26 in Budget 2014.

These measures were introduced to protect young people from welfare dependency by providing young jobseekers with a strong financial incentive to engage in education or training or to take up employment.

Should a young jobseeker on a reduced jobseeker’s allowance payment participate on an education or training programme they will receive a higher weekly payment of €160. This rate will be further increased to €193 per week from September 2017. With effect from March 2017, rates of jobseeker’s payments were increased for claimants of all ages as a result of measures I introduced in Budget 2017.

The CSO’s latest monthly unemployment figures report that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for persons aged 15-24 years was 12.9% in April 2017. This is a significant decrease of over 5 percentage points, from 18% in April 2016.

I am committed to ensuring my Department identifies effective measures to incentivise and support young people in finding and securing sustainable jobs. The best way to do this is through engagement processes and by incentivising them to avail of educational and training opportunities, thereby enhancing their employment prospects.

I have no plans for any further increases in rates at present. Any such changes could only be considered in a budgetary context.