asked the Minister for Labour the plans that have been prepared to make available a schedule of young persons available for employment in the different areas of the country; if this list includes their training or skills; and if it includes the 1976 school and university leavers.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Employment Schedule.
8.
A complete register of the kind envisaged by the Deputy is not available. It is open to all persons, including school and university leavers, to register for employment with the National Manpower Service.
A survey of 1975 second-level school leavers was carried out earlier this year by the National Manpower Service.
Would the Minister not agree that, at a time like this when the unemployment position is in such serious straits, a survey of this nature is of vital importance and of very urgent national importance and that his Department should be bending their efforts in that direction?
I understand the National Manpower Service compiled statistics on the number at present registered with the service's jobseekers classified by occupation design. This information is not presently classified by age groups so that it is not possible to state at the national level how many jobseekers are in the younger age group. There is, however, the survey to which I referred in my original reply carried out by the National Manpower Service in 1976 of the 1975 second-level school leavers. This revealed that seven per cent of the 48,477 covered by that survey were still unemployed. The number who found employment was 49 per cent. Other listings are: Returned to school, 8 per cent; got jobs on family farm or were not seeking employment, 5 per cent; emigrated, 2 per cent; went on to full-time higher education, 19 per cent; destination not known to the schools, 10 per cent. That is a breakdown of that survey.
Would the Minister accept that there has been no effort to bring this survey more up-to-date since the Fianna Fáil administration when unemployment was so much lower and when job opportunities for young people were far more plentiful?
I do not understand the Deputy's point. The survey carried out by the National Manpower Service which I quoted was carried out in 1976. Fianna Fáil left office in 1973.
Further arising from the answer, I can imagine the Minister's embarrassment at the situation. Is he aware that the system now operating, where a 1975 survey is carried out in 1976, operated as well a number of years ago but is operated on a year-late basis at a time when so many young school leavers desperately seek employment? Surely an up-dating of the survey is very urgent and should be undertaken as soon as the examination circle finishes?
I do not see how a survey carried out early in 1976 can cover anything except the 1975 second-level school leavers. I do not get the point.
The Minister has no interest in the situation.