I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
One of the major commitments in the Programme for Government 1981-86 is the undertaking to establish at an early date a youth employment agency. The Government are concerned that our young people are spared the effects of long spells of forced inactivity. The opportunity to translate that element of Government policy to reality is something which I very much welcome.
Since assuming office as Minister for Labour and Minister for the Public Service I have given a very high priority to the early establishment of the Youth Employment Agency. A lot of work has already been accomplished and I am hopeful that, with the co-operation of both Houses of the Oireachtas, the Youth Employment Agency Bill will be given a quick passage so as to permit the early establishment of the agency and the urgent commencement of the nationally important work which it has to do.
The persistent growth of youth unemployment in Europe since the early seventies has called into question many assumptions which could previously be safely made. Now the prospects for obtaining employment and the possibility of having what was seen before as a normal working life span are, increasingly, uncertain. That uncertainty has been heightened by the pace of technological change and its application through all sectors of enterprise. These developments have coincided with the emergence of an increasingly sophisticated youth population, determined to participate fully in all facets of our modern industrial society and, in particular, to realise the high expectations which it sets itself for satisfying, rewarding and durable working lives.
There is a very important job to be done in seeking to align job expectations with the reality of what working life has to offer. The educational system must be able to produce at all levels people who are equipped with the skills and aptitudes for which there is a demand in the working world. To do this there must be a much greater degree of interaction between those responsible for the formulation of educational and training policies and those who chart the course of industrial development in the years ahead.
The proposed Youth Employment Agency will have a very important task to discharge in bringing about this conjunction and so improving on the present situation where often the job aspirations of our young people bear little relationship to industrial requirements. The emphasis of our educational system now leans heavily towards academic rather than vocational skills. While some efforts have been made to remedy this imbalance they have lacked real conviction and consequently their impact has not been significant. As a result, a large number of school leavers fail to secure employment because of the inappropriateness or inadequacy of their vocational preparation.
An examination of our approach to date to overcoming the problem of youth unemployment quickly points up a patchwork of training, work experience and educational measures. These stand apart from any coherently planned approach or strategy. Their only common thread is that they aim to make young people more employable through enhancing their skills and aptitudes. There is general agreement that there are wide variations in the effectiveness of the different programmes in achieving their objectives. Despite this there is no effective monitoring of results or, indeed, any co-ordination of the activities of programme sponsors to channel efforts and change emphasis as circumstances require. Clearly this disparate approach is unsatisfactory and wasteful of resources. It exists in the absence of any central authority which has a mandate to bring a unified and concerted approach towards assisting in the solution of the problem of youth unemployment. I am proposing that this task be assigned to the Youth Employment Agency.
Unemployment among young people is high because unemployment is high in the community overall. The level of unemployment has risen rapidly in the present recession which began at the end of 1979. By the end of October, seasonally adjusted unemployment was 56 per cent higher than in December 1979. Youth unemployment has risen even faster; while seasonally adjusted figures are not available, the actual number of unemployed aged under 25 is now over 80 per cent higher than in January 1980.
It is clear that young workers fare relatively badly when there is a sharp, sudden rise in overall unemployment. Not only are jobs lost in a recession, there is also a fall-off in the number of new jobs created as even successful firms postpone new investment. In addition, fewer older workers are willing to leave their present jobs for fear of being unable to find alternative employment. As a result, the number of job vacancies shrinks, and young people looking for their first job are faced with particular difficulties. It is equally true that youth unemployment can be expected to fall more rapidly in the recovery from a recession.
In this connection, it is encouraging that unemployment has been rising more slowly in recent months, with the rate of increase since the end of April being under 1 per cent per month as compared with 2 per cent per month between December 1979 and April 1981. While the international outlook is unclear, some recovery in demand in the major European countries is likely in the coming year. As this recovery feeds through into increased Irish exports, young people will benefit from the associated increase in employment.
Quite apart from the present recession, unemployment during the seventies in the western economies has been substantially higher than in the previous decade. Economic growth has been slower than during the sixties, and the international recovery from the recession which followed the oil-price increases in 1973-74 was particularly hesitant even before it was cut short by the further shocks of 1979. Meanwhile, population shifts and social change led to rapid increases in the numbers available for work, with the inevitable result of markedly higher unemployment levels.
As a small and extremely open country, Ireland suffered more than most from these trends. Despite the boost given to agricultural and other exports by entry to the EEC, we shared in the generally lower economic growth worldwide. Moreover, our labour force grew particularly rapidly.
The number of retirements has been low, because the generation reaching retirement age is one which was heavily depleted by mass emigration in earlier years. On the other hand, the number of children born each year rose rapidly during the sixties, and these children are now reaching working age. Their numbers have been added to by the steady inflow of children born abroad who accompanied parents returning to Ireland after a period of emigration.
Our labour force has therefore grown even more rapidly than other countries. We are unique, too, in that the numbers available for work are likely to grow steadily well into the nineties. Our major EEC partners will experience static or declining workforces from the mid-eighties onwards. We face a relatively daunting task in providing jobs for all our people, not just the young.
In all countries for which statistics are available, unemployment among teenagers and young adults has always been higher than among older workers, even in good times. Young job-seekers lack many of the skills and abilities which come only with some experience of working life. A larger number of the young jobless at any time are in fact looking for their first job, making the difficult switch between the rather different rhythms and disciplines of school or college and the work-place. They face choices between different occupations and working environments which older workers have already made, and may change jobs several times, with intervening periods of unemployment, before they find their niche.
These factors are balanced to some degree by the greater flexibility of young people, who do not generally have dependants or own their accommodation. They can move more readily to areas where jobs are available, can take greater risks in search of the right job than can older workers who must have a constant concern for the material welfare of dependant families. On balance, however, younger people are in a relatively weak competitive position in the labour market.
One often ignored point I wish to make in relation to the nature of the youth unemployment problem is to do with timing. In the normal course of events, new jobs are created and existing jobs become vacant fairly steadily throughout the year. However, the vast majority of our young people leave the educational system in a brief spell during the summer and commence serious job seeking in autumn. Even in a situation where all school leavers were destined to find jobs, some at least would have to wait a matter of some months until these jobs become available.
While young workers who lose their jobs do not generally remain unemployed for long periods, a minority of them do face the problem of long-term unemployment. The most recent available information relates to October 1980, when just under one-third of the young unemployed had been on the live register for six months or more. If this ratio has remained constant, we can estimate that there are up to 12,000 young people in this category at present. Long-term unemployment is a major problem in itself, and one which has been growing in severity in recent years, and it is of particular concern for the future that our young people should undergo such a demoralising experience at the start of their working lives.
In summary, we face not one, but several unemployment problems, each affecting young people to a greater or lesser degree. We face a medium to long-term task of generating jobs for a rapidly growing labour force. We have an immediate problem of extremely high unemployment, after the rapid rise in the live register during 1980 and 1981. This has affected young people particularly badly.
There is a need for better provision for the transition from education to working life. We have a substantial number of young people who are out of work for long periods. Such young people are likely to have left school early and to have few or no formal qualifications.
As I have made clear, I feel that the main plank of any policy to reduce youth unemployment must be a sustained. attack on the scourge of unemployment at all levels in our society. For Ireland, this requires continued growth in our exports of goods and services. Increased exports are vital in view of the sharp deterioration in our balance of payments position in the last few years. Export growth must also be the engine for the creation of the new jobs which are going to be needed in the years to come.
While the present and future activities of the IDA and other development bodies will go some way towards the necessary expansion in our productive capacity and in exports, the Government are convinced that further initiatives are needed. The major initiatives along these lines, as outlined in the Programme for Government, will be the setting up of the National Development Corporation. The corporation will have great long-term importance in the task of increasing productive employment. One of its main aims will be to ensure that the exploitation of stable commercial opportunities in either the private or public sector will not be constrained by undercapitalisation. Much of the corporation's investment will be directed to new growth sectors where progress in the past has been inhibited for this reason. The corporation will have a central development role, with powers to identify and initiate commercial investment opportunities either on its own or in joint ventures with existing State and private capacities.
A major challenge facing us is the optimum utilisation of the massive investment we have made over the years in our commercial State enterprises. The work of the corporation in promoting efficiency in this area will help develop a professional, vigorous and successful State sector which can contribute greatly to the growth of the economy.
Export growth will depend to a great extent on improved competitiveness and efficiency. The NDC, along with other Government policies for improved efficiency in the public service at large, will play a major part in our drive towards these objectives.
Balanced and self-sustaining output and employment growth will do much to improve the youth employment situation. It will still be necessary to come to terms with those features of our society and its institutions which lead to higher unemployment among young people than among older adults.
Even with high rates of economic growth, the sheer number of young people entering the labour market each year, allied to the special problems of first-time job seekers, will continue to require special measures. A range of such measures, already in existence, will cater for up to 20,000 young people this year.
It is expected that during 1981-5,000 young people will take part in the National Manpower Service's Work Experience Programme; 10,000 young people will be trained in AnCO's general training programmes, with a further 2,000 apprentices; 1,700 young people will participate in AnCO's Community Youth Training Programme.
A further 1,000 people have been engaged in schemes run by the Departments of Education and of the Environment.
Additional funds have been provided for several of these programmes in recent weeks.
Allied to measures taken within the educational system, such as the introduction and expansion of pre-employment courses, these programmes constitute a sizeable effort to aid the young unemployed and those about to leave school.
Even with this level of State support, the present high level of youth unemployment dictates that additional resources be made available.
Apart from the question of inadequate funding, a major problem with existing programmes is the lack of co-ordination between them. Here, as in other countries, the recognition of youth unemployment as a major policy concern in the mid-1970's led to a series of ad hoc responses. The range of schemes now open to our young unemployed illustrates this point. Some training courses run for periods of up to a year, others for a matter of weeks. Some have an element of work experience, others take place entirely in a training centre environment. In some cases the objective of schemes is simply to provide short-term employment with a rudimentary element of learning-by-doing, and the continuity of employment offered varies from area to area.
On occasions the fact that programmes with roughly similar objectives were being run by separate agencies led to competition and duplication and resulted in confusion among the very young people who were meant to benefit. It is fair to say that we do not have a comprehensive and integrated range of programmes, and I am convinced that there is a need for such a package.
Finally, I am concerned that existing schemes do not do enough to aid those in most need — young people who have left school at an early stage and face a future of uncertain and sporadic employment in low-skilled jobs. This may result from the sheer volume of applications for participation in programmes set against the limited number of places available. The truly disadvantaged teenagers are likely to have a range of social and personal problems and thus appear at a superficial level to be least likely to benefit from structured training programmes of the type we now offer. As a result programme sponsors may be unwilling to take them on board. They tend to be restricted to programmes involving short-term employment creation rather than skill acquisition and this, if anything, reinforces the cycle of deprivation. I know that some programme sponsors are aware of this problem and have run imaginative pilot schemes for the relevant young people, and I am confident that an increase in resources will go some way towards helping disadvantaged youths. It is also my intention to move towards greater concentration of resources in the areas of greatest need.
Schemes similar to our own, with minor variations, have been introduced by all our partners in the European communities. In board terms the schemes cover temporary or permanent job creation schemes in the public sector; similar schemes in the private sector based mainly on wage subsidies or tax concessions; education programmes for unemployed youth and pre-employment courses in the educational system; vocational education and training; work experience programmes; early retirement of older workers to make way for young workers; and measures to stimulate labour demand in small enterprises, youth enterprises and co-operatives.
Probably the most highly developed set of programmes to assist young people are those operated in Scandinavian countries. These programmes form part of a "youth guarantee" which takes the form of a guarantee of an opportunity of a job or a training place to young people who meet certain conditions, relating mainly to the duration of unemployment. A similar approach is now being taken in the UK under the Youth Opportunities Programme.
It is fair to say that what we are proposing for Ireland in the Bill before us at least matches what is being done in other countries. The emphasis is on a comprehensive package to assist young people and it is very similar to, if not identical with, the youth guarantee idea which I have mentioned.
Any major new departure in an area as important as the one before us needs the widest possible range of opinions and advice prior to its initiation. I have discussed the proposed agency with, among others, representatives of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Federated Union of Employers and the National Youth Council of Ireland. The views of these bodies were taken into consideration in formulating the proposals before Deputies.
I also intend to submit to the board of the agency, when it is established, suggestions made to me and my Department over the last four months concerning the activities of the agency. The interest shown in the agency up to now has, I believe, emphasised the importance attached by the community to the need to assist young people in the labour market. Other bodies and individuals who wish to do so may make submissions direct to the agency and I am sure such submissions will be welcomed. One document which will be of particular interest to the agency is the forthcoming report of the OECD team led by Mrs. Shirley Williams which examined our youth employment problems and our existing schemes earlier this year.
Certain conclusions can be arrived at from what I have been saying up to now. Firstly, we have a sizeable number of our young people unemployed. Secondly, labour force projections point to a continuing situation of more young entrants to the labour force than retirals. Thirdly, what has been done up to now is not an adequately comprehensive and co-ordinated response to the problem — it does not cover the entire transition from school to full integration in the work force and it is of limited benefit to disadvantaged young people.
The Government in its programme for 1981-86 recognised these considerations and the need for special provisions to deal with the acute problem of youth employment. The Government therefore decided to establish without delay a youth employment agency to integrate and radically extend the schemes that exist at present under the separate auspices of a number of State enterprises. The Government intend the new agency to move as rapidly as it physically can to the point where an additional 20,000 young people will be catered for by existing and new schemes. These measures will be designed to ensure that no young person is left without some form of work training or work experience within a relatively short period of having completed his or her education.
I would now like to give the House an indication of my proposals for dealing with the problem. The Youth Employment Agency Bill before us is intended to implement these proposals. In brief, the Bill has two parts dealing, firstly, with the establishment of the agency itself and, secondly, with the collection of the levy.
The first part embraces sections 2 to 14. These sections provide for the formation and registration of the agency, its constitution as a limited liability company under the Companies Acts, its memorandum and articles of association, the board of directors, the holding of shares and the furnishing of balance sheets, the winding up of the agency and the usual provisions under which directors and employees of the agency cannot be members of the Houses of the Oireachtas or the European Assembly.
The levy to finance the agency and the schemes is dealt with in sections 15 to 26, the main points being the methods of collecting the levy and the channelling of funds to programme sponsors. The European Social Fund will also be involved in the funding of the programmes concerned.
The urgency and importance of the tasks which the Youth Employment Agency will be expected to accomplish require that they should very quickly achieve an identification as the primary unit assisting and facilitating the employment of young persons. To do this they must be seen to be competent and efficient and to have a flexibility to contemplate initiatives and embark upon new departures. With these considerations in mind I am proposing to establish the agency as a limited company. Approval of the Oireachtas to this approach is required in the legislation which we are now discussing. Its advantages lie in that the agency can be quickly established and operative and can have the flexibility also not alone to assess, co-ordinate and expand existing activities but also to make a distinctive contribution in their own right towards alleviating the problems of youth unemployment.
I propose to appoint a board of 11 members to direct the agency's operations. Two of these would be representative of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, two representative of employer organisations and two of youth interests. In addition a representative of the Ministers for Education and the Environment respectively will be appointed and, finally, three board members including the chairman, will be appointed directly by me as Minister for Labour. I am confident that a board of this size, peopled by able and committed representatives of the relevant major interests, can make a most fundamental contribution through directing the activities of the Youth Employment Agency towards realising fully the objectives for which they are being established.
In view of the urgency of the task facing the agency I propose, with the agreement of the House, to establish them on an ad hoc basis at an early date.
The memorandum and articles of association of the company will incorporate the following detailed terms of reference:
(a) to review the effectiveness of youth employment, work experience and training programmes with particular reference to their impact on disadvantaged youth;
(b) to extend existing youth job creation, training and work experience programmes, while providing also for increased penetration for such programmes among disadvantaged youth;
(c) to arrange for assistance to be given to voluntary, social or community organisations to provide employment for young people where this is not possible under existing programmes;
(d) to arrange assistance for young people with the establishment of an enterprise in areas other than those in which existing bodies, for example, the IDA, county development teams and AnCO, operate; in particular the agency should promote, through education and publicity, the concept of self-help and enterprise amongst young people, either individually or in co-operative endeavours;
(e) to carry out and administer youth employment and training schemes where there are gaps in existing programmes;
(f) to co-ordinate and integrate the various schemes, ensure there is no duplication between them and, in this connection, to set general standards for the various schemes in relation to such matters as the ages, wages and allowances of participants;
(g) to identify areas outside the scope of existing programmes into which Government aid to young people could be extended, for example, agriculture and other primary activities;
(h) to consider the possibility of improving the access of unemployed young people to a range of educational and training courses in the private and public sectors possibly by means of a voucher scheme for eligible youth;
(i) to submit views, as appropriate, on educational policy and its effectiveness in preparing young people for working life.
In drawing up these terms of reference I have given very careful consideration to the full range of activities which the agency will be expected to undertake. They have been adopted to ensure that the agency will meet certain basic requirements — for example, that programmes are concentrated in areas of greatest disadvantage and are operated in a non-discriminatory way. They also leave the agency with adequate scope for enterprise and initiative.
Of particular interest to the House will be the facility which the agency will have to relate directly with local interests and to assist these, both financially and with advice and back-up, to devise and implement schemes at local level. The essential test in determining whether such schemes should be assisted will be whether they can provide worthwhile outlets for youth and enhance their possibilities of obtaining employment. In addition the agency will be able to assist young persons to start up enterprises which have potential for additional job creation.
In recent years, we have depended to a large extent on foreign investment and enterprise to provide jobs. Nonetheless, I feel that this country offers comparatively more scope than most other EEC member states for the application of native initiative and enterprise. There is considerable potential for young people to create opportunities for themselves and others. The lack of a good track record to date should not deter them from openly looking at the possibilities for enterprise. I would hope that the Youth Employment Agency will play a constructive role in facilitating such a development.
I should like also to mention the responsibility which the agency will have to consider any innovative measures to augment those currently providing work experience, training, or employment outlets for our young people. To a very considerable extent our interventions in these areas to date have closely mirrored developments in other member states of the EEC and, in particular, in Britain. I would envisage that the agency, because of the different representative interests making an input to their work, should be able to identify gaps in the present operations and bring about required change. I am hopeful that the agency will give high priority also to devising, either on their own or in co-operation with other sponsors, programmes aimed at specific target groups and which take account of the particular and relevant characteristics of the location in which they are held. A high degree of local co-operation will obviously be required to facilitate such an approach but I have no doubt at all that such co-operation will be readily forthcoming in the interest of tackling and overcoming youth unemployment.
As indicated in the Government's programme to which I have already referred, it is intended to defray the cost of the operations coming within the scope of the Youth Employment Agency through the medium of a 1 per cent levy on all income. This 1 per cent charge will be collected by means of an appropriate increase in persons' health contributions. In preparing the Bill my general approach has been to build on the financing framework that already exists. This would seem to be the most sensible, efficient and cost effective way to proceed. Following the precedents set in the collection of the contribution for health purposes the following arrangement will apply:
(a) the levy will be collected from the PRSI group via the PRSI system with the Revenue Commissioners being the collecting agents.
(b) the levy will be collected from the self-employed and "excepted farmers" also by the Revenue Commissioners, and
(c) the levy will be collected from farmers not included above by the health boards.
Under the Bill as drafted certain social welfare recipients will be exempt from the levy as will medical card holders who are not in employment while for those card holders in insurable employment the levy will be paid by their employer.
These proposals also follow precedents set in the case of the health contribution. In addition I have decided to exclude other social welfare payments now liable for health contributions. I will be introducing an appropriate amendment on Committee Stage. I might mention also that preliminary consideration is being given to exempting low paid workers from payment of the health contribution and that whatever is decided in that instance will be taken into account in deciding liability for the youth employment levy.
On the basis of best estimates I expect receipts from the levy to amount in a full year to somewhere in the region of £63 million. The mechanism proposed for channelling this money to the agency and other training and employment opportunities for young people is that a subhead will be entered in the Department of Labour Vote, of an amount equal to the expected yield from the levy during the period in question. Thus in 1982 my Department's estimates would include an amount equivalent to the expected yield from the levy from 6 April 1982 to the end of the year which will be of the order of £40 million. I gave detailed consideration to the question of having a youth employment fund. I rejected this idea, however, on the grounds of the complex accounting procedures involved and also because funds would not become available until somewhere towards the middle of 1982 — and I intend to have the agency in operation long before that date.
It is my intention to devote proceeds of the levy as fas as possible directly to the Youth Employment Agency in the normal manner of a grant-in-aid. I will make funds available to the agency following its submission of an annual outline programme to the Minister for Labour and subsequently following receipt of regular progress reports. As regards its relationship with programme sponsors, I am of the opinion that the agency should adopt a course under which the sponsors will submit their programmes to it, discussions will then take place, and finally agreement will be given by the agency to funding to a determined level, based on certain targets being achieved. The details of the schemes to be sponsored by the agency, numbers to be covered and similar questions are matters proper for decision by the agency.
The subhead in my Department vote will also contain a provision covering the direct channelling of funds to youth training and employment programmes with the sanction of the Minister for Finance. This provision is intended to cover any difficulties which may arise in channelling funds to programme sponsors in 1982. The main programme sponsors will be AnCO, the National Manpower Service, the Department of Education and the Department of the Environment but I expect this list to expand considerably in 1982.
I have considered the question whether the proceeds of the levy should be used to finance existing youth schemes carried forward at the 1981 level into 1982. The alternative would be to use the proceeds of the levy to finance only additions to these schemes and new schemes. As I have already indicated one of the important functions of the agency will be to integrate and co-ordinate all that is now being done for the employment of youth and to build on existing structures. I have accordingly opted for financing both existing and new schemes from the levy. It would be wasteful of resources and inefficient to do otherwise and it would go counter to the objective of integrating the various schemes. The Government will top up the receipts from the levy in any year to such extent as might be necessary to meet the total costs of all schemes carried out by the agency or by other bodies with its approval.
The European Social Fund plays a significant role in influencing Community employment policy. In brief, it provides assistance for vocational training and for community regions with the most pressing employment problems. In this regard, Ireland has been deemed a region of priority and 55 per cent of costs of our eligible training schemes are refunded from the European Social Fund. In addition we receive about £11 per week in respect of each youth on a work experience or job creation programme. This aid has been of immense value to the development of our system of vocational training since 1973 and in more recent years in supplementing the cost of our work experience and job creation schemes. I look forward to increased ESF support for our existing programmes in their expanded form and I am confident that aid from the fund will also be forthcoming for any new schemes promoted by the agency to deal with the youth employment problem.
Due to the necessity to have applications for social fund assistance with the EEC Commission before mid-October in the year preceding the operations, we have already submitted to the EEC applications that take account of activities by the agency and by other programme sponsors in 1982. When I discussed the applications with the director for the social fund, he endorsed fully what we were doing for youth and welcomed the new approach which we have adopted. The moneys which we are spending and which will be contributed by our own people illustrate the importance which we attach in Ireland to the question of youth employment and this approach has been endorsed by the Commission. I should state that the level of assistance from the social fund for young people is at present under consideration by the EEC Commission and we will be making an Irish input when the matter comes before the Council of Ministers.
The setting up of the agency, and the proposed expansion of provision for the young unemployed, represent a major departure. In 1982, as I have said, I envisage a doubling of the number of young people to be catered for.
I am concerned that the increase in resources devoted to youth employment and training schemes should have a direct impact on the problem of youth unemployment. It is my confident expectation that the proposal I have put before the House will achieve that aim, for several reasons. One possible obstacle in the way of success is that in a period of limited job opportunities, those completing programmes may have great difficulty in finding employment. On this point, I have already outlined this Government's general policies for the generation of self-sustaining employment growth.
It is also my view that the activities of the agency, of themselves, will help our long-term job creation drive. Training and work experience programmes will help our young people to build up skills and abilities which they would otherwise lack. By so raising the skill level of our young workforce, we will improve our competitive position relative to other countries, and increase the scope for carrying out a broader range of economic activities in Ireland. Not only will it encourage outside firms to locate new activities in Ireland, it will facilitate the development of new forms of activity from our new resources. In this connection, the agency's role in advising on educational policy and its relationship with working life will be of major importance in developing an integrated approach to the development of our young people.
Finally, I wish to refer again to the social, as opposed to economic, benefits to be sought from the agency's work. This relates particularly to the emphasis placed in our proposals on the needs of disadvantaged youth. I see the drive towards improved access for such young people to training, work experience and employment programmes as being a major requirement for greater equality of opportunity in our society. There are many barriers to such equality, but I am confident that the agency will share my determination to break these down and to ensure a better future for young people from the poorer parts of our cities, towns and rural areas.
I commend these proposals to the Dáil with full confidence that they will be welcomed and supported. The Bill represents an earnest of our determination to deal with the problem of youth unemployment in a structured manner to ensure that young boys and girls leaving school will be equipped to take their place in the world of work without too long a delay.
I have particular pleasure in putting forward the Bill, as its objectives and concerns are ones which I have supported both within my own party and as Vice-Chairman, for a number of years, of the Youth Committee of the European Parliament.
