Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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672. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the actions taken by her Department to date to implement EU Council Recommendation, A Bridge to Jobs, Reinforcing the Youth Guarantee dated 30 October 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22158/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the experience of past recessions indicates that youth employment tends to be significantly impacted by any labour market shock. This is because many employers operate a "last in-first out" protocol when reducing their labour force. Moreover, in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact on our youth is driven by the tendency for many younger people to work in some of the sectors most severely impacted by the pandemic; namely accommodation and food and retail.

Prior to the pandemic, seasonally adjusted youth unemployment (15-24 year olds) stood at just over 11% in December 2019. Latest estimates from the CSO however, show that by the end of March 2021, this figure had increased to almost 15%. These estimates exclude those in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP). Including all those in receipt of the PUP gives a COVID-19 adjusted unemployment rate estimate is 59.2 % for young people at the end of March.

It is important to note a significant number of PUP recipients are students. As of end-March 2021, it is estimated that 47,000 PUP recipients are students, with almost 90 percent of these in the under 25 cohort. Using international measures of unemployment, set by the International Labour Organisation, students are generally not counted as unemployed, as they are not considered part of the labour force. Therefore, the inclusion of recipients of PUP, including students, in the COVID-19 Adjusted Measure of youth unemployment  artificially inflates this measure.

We know that  jobs of many persons currently on PUP will not be permanently lost due to the pandemic. Many will return to previous employment once restrictions ease, as they did during previous easing of restrictions during 2020. However, others will require assistance and support to return to employment, reskill and to find new jobs.

This is why the European Council believed it was important to reinforce the existing Youth Guarantee to aid in alleviating the labour market impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on young people. This aim is complementary to our objectives in Government.  As Minister for Social Protection, I welcomed the Council of the European Union’s recommendation of 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. As part of activation services provided by my Department via Intreo, young people under 25 receive the most intensive engagement. My Department intend to extend this up to age 29, as per the new reinforced Youth Guarantee, and are currently exploring the necessary system changes to allow for this to be put in place.

Under the July Jobs Stimulus, my Department, along with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, are putting in place the following measures to support persons including young persons back to employment:

- Expanding the caseload capacity of Intreo Centres, with the assignment of 100 job coaches to provide enhanced employment services and supports.

- Increasing the benefit of the JobsPlus recruitment subsidy to employers who hire young people, by expanding the young person rate from under 25 to under 30 years of age. Under this scheme an employer receives the JobsPlus subsidy of €7,500 once they employ a young person 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).

- 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.

- Facilitating access to the Back to Education Allowance and Back to Work Enterprise Allowance to those displaced by the pandemic and in receipt of PUP, by waiving the usual qualifying period of 3-9 months.

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. 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, regardless of age. This programme will seek to encourage businesses 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”. I expect to launch the Programme as soon as public health restrictions allow in 2021.

In addition, the reinforced Youth Guarantee notes the value in supporting apprenticeships as a means of training young people and providing stable labour market integration. Last week, my colleague, Minister Harris, launched the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025. The Action Plan sets out a five-year strategy to deliver on the Programme for Government commitment of reaching 10,000 new apprentice registrations per year by 2025. The plan provides a roadmap to a single apprenticeship system and new supports for employers and apprentices, which will prove attractive for many young people.

These efforts will be further bolstered by Pathways to Work 2021-2025, which is currently being finalised by my Department. Pathways to Work, is the Government’s national employment services strategy. It will set out how an expanded Public Employment Service will utilise its existing and expanded capacity to deliver effective services in a post-COVID labour market. Publication is expected in the coming months, following the launch of the Government's Economic Recovery Plan.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.