Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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384. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her views on the new youth guarantee; her plans and intended deadlines to ensure those under 29 years of age can receive an offer of employment, education, traineeship or apprenticeship within a period of four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education, as committed to under the new youth guarantee (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41672/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Prior to the pandemic youth unemployment in Ireland stood at just over 10 percent in Q1 2020 based on the CSO’s Labour Force Survey data, with approximately 20,000 persons aged under 25 on the Live Register. By Q3 2020 these figures had increased to 20 percent and 25,000 respectively. Moreover, if we include PUP recipients in the figures, by the end of November, over 47 percent of young people in the labour force were unemployed, with one-in-four current PUP recipients (approx. 88,000) under the age of 25. However, these figures include young people in full time education who are in receipt of PUP, who would not normally be included in traditional measures of unemployment.

Experience from previous downturns has shown us that the impacts of labour market shocks can be weighted towards younger people. Much of this impact can be related to employers operating a “last in, first out” approach when enforcing cutbacks and reducing their workforce. Recent research by my Department has shown that young people make up a significant share of workers in those sectors most greatly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and associated public health restrictions; namely the hospitality and retail sectors.

While many young people, in particular those in receipt of PUP, will return to work as restrictions hopefully, continue to ease, it is inevitable that some jobs will be permanently lost.

This is why the European Commission believed it was important to reinforce the existing Youth Guarantee (YG) to aid in alleviating the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on young people accessing the labour market and in gaining jobs.

As Minister for Social Protection, and in light of the current challenges faced by the young people in the labour market, I welcome the Council of the European Union’s recommendation on a reinforced Youth Guarantee.

Central to the reinforced programme is the extension of the widening of the youth age bracket to include young people aged 25-29. This change acknowledges changes ongoing in our society at present; including the fact that school-to-work transitions and sustainable labour market integration now take longer because of the changing nature of work, extended periods spent in education and the skills in demand.

My Department and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science have set plans in place to support and assist those, including young people, whose jobs are permanently lost due to Covid-19 and the impact of public health restrictions on the economy. These measures include;

- Expanding the caseload capacity of Intreo Centres during Q1 2020 with the assignment of 100 job coaches to provide enhanced employment services and supports. Case officer support to help people with job search advice and assistance is shown to be the most effective means of helping people move into employment.

- Extending the current contracts of existing contracted public employment service providers into 2021.

- Expanding the benefit of the JobsPlus recruitment subsidy to employers who hire young people. Under this scheme an employer receives the JobsPlus subsidy of €7,500 once they employ a young person (under 30 years of age) who has been unemployed for just 4 months. A higher subsidy of €10,000 is paid for recruitment of a person who was long term unemployed (over 12 months). This will help make it more attractive to recruit young people who face difficulties in securing a footing in employment. My Department will begin actively promoting this Scheme to employers early in the new year, and 8,000 places will be available for young jobseekers throughout 2021.

- Providing access to additional full-time and part-time education, including targeted short-term courses, with over 35,000 new education and training places for those currently unemployed.

- Providing incentives to employers to take on more apprentices, with the provision of a grant of €3,000 to employers for each new apprentice recruited until June 2021. By end September, over 3,000 new apprenticeships with over 600 employers were registered.

- Facilitating access to the Back to Education Allowance and Back to Work Enterprise Allowance to those displaced by the pandemic by waiving the usual qualifying period of 3-9 months. My Department will actively promote this scheme to suitable candidates. Additional provision has been made in Budget 2021 of €3.5million – equivalent to an extra 700 places.

A core element of the reinforced Youth Guarantee is to support young people in gaining valuable work experience and developing the right skills for a changing world of work. Building on the success of the Youth Employment Support Scheme (YESS), my Department is at an advanced stage in developing a new work placement experience programme for those out of work for at least six months. This programme will seek to encourage employers to provide jobseekers with the necessary workplace skills to compete in the labour market and to help break the vicious circle of “no job without experience, no experience without a job”. It is intended that the programme will support mentoring to encourage jobseekers to expand their horizons and avail of new learning options which can help them to grow into a new career. There is a target of over 10,000 persons, regardless of age, to be placed on this six-month scheme by end 2021.

Work is also at an advanced stage by my Department to develop Pathways to Work, the national employment services strategy for the period 2021-2025. The strategy will seek to incorporate the core elements of the reinforced Youth Guarantee and build on the support measures outlined above as we assist young people on their journey to work. Publication is expected in early 2021, following the launch of the Government's National Economic Plan.