It is a great pleasure, as the youngest Member of this House, that the first opportunity I have to make a speech is on the Youth Employment Agency Bill, 1981, which is a special recognition of young people and the specific problems relating to them. We must commend the Minister and the Government for the alacrity with which they met their commitments by bringing in this measure. It would be usual to have Green Papers, White Papers and consultative documents which would stretch for over a year. The Minister has a great enthusiasm for this area of his responsibility and this he has clearly shown by setting up a limited liability company so that it will be in operation in early 1982.
Special mention must be made of the National Manpower Service and their consultative committee which reported in November 1980. This was a very relevant document on youth employment. A contribution from the National Youth Council of Ireland and EEC reports have also been very effective and worthwhile.
Welcoming the setting up of the agency I particularly welcome their concept, their statutory base and their financial independence. In welcoming this the Coalition are not saying it is a substitute for sound economic planning and policy and it will not, by itself solve the unemployment problem. What it does is to clearly meet the specific needs and many and varied problems of the age group between 15 and 25 years.
First there is the transition from school to work that no other age group seeking jobs has; this is a position of weakness and inexperience. In a time of recession we have redundancies. It is common union practice that the last in is the first out and young people are particularly vulnerable in this area. Because we have higher standards of education, our young people are more idealistic and have higher expectations than their parents and those who have gone before them, and it is extra demoralising and disillusioning when they cannot get jobs.
Over 40 per cent of our unemployed are in the age group of 15 to 24. As the Minister said, since January 1980 the growth of this sector of the unemployed has been 80 per cent. The age group 15 to 19 years have problems of lower productivity for the same wage, and there is very little incentive for employers to take them on. We also have demographic considerations and problems which are particular to this country within an EEC context. Between 1975 and 1995 our labour force will double. This is verified by the fact that over 50 per cent of our population are under 25 and recent census figures show that with the increased birth rate this trend will continue.
For all these reasons this agency is urgently needed. There is an urgent need for long-term planning throughout this decade and beyond for proper youth employment policies. In studying the role of the agency we must look at existing services. We must look at all the structures provided under the Department of Labour and other Departments. I believe all these services and agencies provide a disjointed, incomplete and insufficient answer to the problem of youth unemployment.
I have always believed the National Manpower Service should have been a national manpower authority. Because they get their finances from the Department of Labour Vote they are under-financed, under-staffed and totally ineffective in dealing with young people's problems.
In my constituency I meet many people of my own age. Some are graduates and others have diplomas from the RTC. The first thing I ask is if they are registered with the National Manpower Service. Ninety per cent of them are but they still cannot find jobs. The present agency are not providing the required service. The best feature of the agency is the work experience courses, £20 per week being paid to employers who retain these workers. At present there are about 5,000 employed under this scheme. As the placement rate in retainable jobs is about 80 per cent, there is a great need for doubling this figure.
AnCO have an industrial training role to play. The apprenticeship and adult training courses are excellent. I visited the regional centre in Waterford which provides the excellent skilled requirements needed for our new labour force. Like the National Manpower Service AnCO needs to be expanded. I believe there are certain counties which have lost out and have a higher proportion of refusals for AnCO courses.
I am very critical of the community training projects scheme. In Enniscorthy there was a particular development — the Enniscorthy Boys' Club. They have been waiting three years for their project to be completed. Many of the lads come from Waterford and they work very few hours a day because of travelling. There are not a sufficient number of overseers there. This scheme needs to be looked at. If money is scarce this scheme should not be given the priority it is getting at present. This is borne out by the fact that many other local voluntary groups that have proposed developments are not availing of this service because they know of the red tape and delays involved.
In this area of community projects works I welcome the new scheme of capital grants for recreational and sporting facilities announced by the Department of Education. This is a very worthy exercise as will be borne out by the number of applications received before the closing date. When we talk about young people we must also take into account their leisure time and ensure their time is taken up constructively. My only fear is that as these projects are put for tender and approved and inspected in the normal way by the Department, there is no guarantee young people will be employed. The contractor who has entered the lowest tender will get the job. There is no guarantee that young people will be employed. Therefore I do not believe this is an answer to the problem of the young.
Examining the overall agencies and bodies that operate in the area of youth employment we see that they are all doing their best in their own areas, but there is no co-ordination. Each scheme is under-financed and there is no overall or isolated evaluation of the scheme. This is where the agency will have a role to play.
We must examine the existing educational policy at second level. The type of academic curriculum pursued at present is a direct aggravation to young school leavers trying to find jobs. The kind of textbook education they get does not meet practical requirements. Many people do the leaving certificate at 16 and 17 years of age and when they are ready to apply for jobs the first thing they face is a statement in advertisements to the effect that applicants must be 18 years or over. That means that there is a 12 to 18 month gap before they can hope to get official employment, even with State bodies. The problem of young people leaving school too early certainly needs to be examined. The points system for the leaving certificate has no practical bearing or usefulness for when children finish school. I would like to see subjects such as technical drawing, building construction and work study and practice included in the curriculum, so that students in fifth year who are choosing their subjects for the leaving certificate will have an incentive under the points system to take up those practical studies. There is a need for technical and scientific education and there should be an incentive towards that in secondary schools. The RTCs are doing an excellent job in this regard but there is need for further liaison between the National Council for Educational Awards, who present diplomas and certificates through the RTC courses, and industry. That should be done so that we can get in young people who are employable and have the skills needed.
School leavers are ill-equipped to handle even such simple things as filling up application forms or sitting for interviews. Our schemes at present are scattered and as a result many young people must approach local representatives or the National Manpower Service in the hope of getting a job. In many cases they do not get any further than completing an application form because employers do not reply to them. It is no wonder that they are becoming frustrated. That is one of the reasons why I welcome the establishment of the agency. Many young people look to this agency with new hope that it will meet their problems and the problems that will be faced by their younger brothers and sisters. The Minister must establish the extent of the problem and prepare a plan to solve it. The first move the agency must make is to compile a register of those who are unemployed. There is a view that the National Manpower Service should carry out that duty but I reject that because the National Manpower Service did not keep such a register in the last ten years. I do not think they have the personnel, the finance or the structures to keep a proper register. I am talking about a register of those who are unemployed between the ages of 15 and 25. Areas experiencing problems in regard to unemployment could be identified and the agency could put more finance into them to create more jobs. It is the intention that the agency will operate a guaranteed system of a job within 12 months of leaving school and the preparation of a register as I suggested would help in that regard. If the agency is to be as effective as we would all like to see it, it is essential that it controls registration.
I should also like to see the agency setting up a research unit to monitor and evaluate the programmes and schemes that are in operation to help young people get employment. We are producing people for jobs that are not available because of the excess in those areas. At the same time there is a shortage of young people with skills. There is a fundamental need for such a unit to look at the areas that have excesses in requirements and those that need to re-evaluate courses. When considering youth unemployment we must remember that this does not occur only in the lower paid area. Proportionately there are as many unemployed graduates and they, and their parents, have put a lot of money into their education. Such people are utterly frustrated because they cannot get employment. The research unit I have suggested could look at such areas as agri-business, horticulture and so on to see if graduates can obtain employment in them. It should not cater for manual workers only.
We are all aware that the IDA regional offices have projects to help young people or those anxious to set up an enterprise. The IDA is available to grant-aid projects that will lead to a reduction in imports instead of such industries as printing, the bottling of soft drinks or meat processing where there is an excess already. All available information should be given to the agency which would then be in a position to play an advisory role and that role would be monitored by the research unit. I accept that there will be teething problems with the agency as occurs in all new bodies but a research unit must be established to examine and evaluate the overall success rate of each scheme.
The agency should also play an educational role and have powers to investigate and recommend changes in our second level system. The curriculum must be looked at but I would like to see the agencies appointing a career guidance adviser who would be responsible for career guidance counsellors attending at schools throughout the country. There is also a need to make civics courses mandatory in secondary schools so that children are advised on the filling out of application forms and are made aware of social welfare entitlements, tax matters, trade union and work practices and so on. There is a basic ignorance about such matters among young people and they have to approach public representatives. They should undergo a work preparation programme in their schools under the auspices of the new agency. Schools should be visited twice yearly by representatives of the agency and the agency should also invite representatives of the employers so that they can have a complete awareness of all problems. We could call this a count down to careers and it should only be available to young people to see that they are better prepared when leaving school.
I am most concerned about the direct employment role of the agency. Most expenditure should be on specific projects. In the area of agriculture we have the farm apprenticeship board and relief services operated by Macra na Feirme. This morning I attended a meeting between the IFA and Macra and I heard the head of the family farm section speak of the need to train the new generation of farmers' wives. In many cases those people were teachers or nurses before marriage and did not have any direct experience of agriculture. With greater mechanisation on farms there is also a greater role for the farm apprenticeship board to play. The new agency should also assist in those areas. Deputy Allen spoke about inner-city groups and I should like to add that there is a role for direct community involvement in urban renewal, or where there are specific projects that need to be undertaken — either in an urban or in a deprived rural area in respect of which the agency on the basis of their register have assessed the problem and concluded that no individual employer can solve that problem. In such circumstances they could examine the possibility of setting up temporary projects.
In towns there are many instances where both husband and wife are out at work or where there are elderly people living alone and who are not able to undertake essential services in the home such as sweeping a chimney, clearing blocked drains and so on. There is a strong case for the agency to consider the setting up of local agencies, possibly through a network of local committees, whereby services would be co-ordinated and people with the type of problems I have mentioned could approach the agency and they, in turn, would hire young people to do the necessary work. We all experience difficulty in acquiring the services of a plumber of a carpenter. If the agency at local level were to become involved in such activity, they would be contributing directly to employment. When set up, the board should have no reservations in trying pilot schemes. I would hope that they would be courageous in this respect and would not adopt a penny-pinching approach. The only way in which to find out whether schemes might be successful is to try them and test them fully.
In the area of tourism we had in Dublin recently, for instance, a young traveller hotel set up. There is also the area of hostels in which people are required for such duties as caretaking, supervision, domestic work and so on. These are specific employment roles that the agency might consider. However, if there is any question of the board setting up regional type situations as happened in the case of the health boards or of the IDA, I would fear that we would be setting up another layer of bureaucracy. If the agency is to be on those lines I would suggest setting up on a voluntary basis if possible a complete network of local committees who would report directly to the various public bodies and make recommendations in regard to their individual areas.
In certain areas in which there are specific problems the agency would do well to play a direct capital investment role though within their budget it may not be possible to make the type of capital allocation that would be necessary but they could provide the incentives in areas in which neither the public nor private sectors can meet the requirements of young people.
The concept of youth co-operatives is worthwhile and should be assisted and grant-aided directly. As a matter of priority the agency should have the assistance of young entrepreneurs whose talents and time would be very beneficial. Moneys spent in this way would be recouped by the Exchequer in due course. The co-operatives would ensure the retention of young people in employment.
It is very important also that the agency have a strong public relations unit and that they have a very high public profile. The Minister expressed particular personal concern that the agency would operate in deprived and disadvantaged areas so far as young people are concerned. According to the National Manpower Service many of those are not even registered. Therefore, the agencies we have are not helping these young people. Employers in such areas should be notified of the assistance and of the schemes being provided by the agency.
I do not find any reference to the handicapped in the Articles of Association in this legislation. Perhaps it was not found necessary to make specific reference to these people. This Government are continuing the policy of the previous Government whereby a minimum of 3 per cent of all public sector employees are to be drawn from the ranks of the handicapped or of the semi-disabled. I urge that in the projects undertaken by the agency this figure be at least 5 per cent.
There is no reference in the legislation either to equality though I expect that it is assumed there will be equality. I make this point because the AnCO courses have been beneficial particularly to young men. Many of these courses such as bricklaying, welding, mechanical engineering and so on are applicable mainly to young men. The agency must be aware of the needs of young girls in the employment area expecially since there are more young girls than young boys in the country. There must not be this stereo-typing attitude in which girls are trained only for secretarial or clerical work. Other courses must be available to them also.
I am considerably disappointed with the composition of the board in so far as the National Youth Council are concerned. I have been in touch with that body during the past couple of years and I am aware of their commitment in this area. They were the ones who in 1978 first mooted the idea of an employment agency in specific terms. They have furnished the Department with considerable memoranda on the subject and they have had consultations with the officials of the Department of Labour and of other relevant Departments as well as with the Minister directly. In these circumstances I am very disappointed to note that only two of the 11 members are to be drawn from that council. Unless the Minister appoints more young people to the agency specific problems will arise. At a time of recession there are always sectional interests whether on the part of employers or of trade unions. If the textile industry, for example, is experiencing a rough time representations will be made to the ICTU and to the FUE to safeguard the interests of that industry. That is why I ask that young people be given greater representation on the new agency. They will not have any sectional interests. A one-third representation would be fair and reasonable for them. It would be a recognition of the voluntary work they undertake and of the role they have to play in this agency. In keeping with their commitment the Government are to set up a youth committee made up of members of the Dáil which will be the first of its kind in that not only will it comprise Members of both Houses of the Oireachtas but also members from bodies such as Macra and so on. I would like the committee to have a very close relationship with the agency and be directly related to youth affairs and youth problems so that there would be a close liaison between the two and recommendations could go backwards and forwards providing the House with an opportunity to examine these recommendations objectively and constructively.
Turning now to the financial structure, I welcome what the Minister has done. He has not acted in a bureaucratic way. He has used the procedures already there, the PRSI and the health contributions, as the method of collection. This will be effective since collection will be immediate. It will also have the advantage of not entailing the recruitment of more staff to collect the moneys required. I believe the budget of AnCO and the National Manpower Service will not be undermined in any way because the agency will have money. I know the Minister has decided against setting up a youth employment fund and I would have no objection to this decision if I knew for certain that the budget under the Department of Labour to the National Manpower Service and AnCO will remain unaffected. I accept his dilemma from the point of view of speed and urgency and later on, when the agency is established and the financial structures are there, I hope the Government will consider setting up a youth employment fund so that there will be a guarantee of a specific 1 per cent to be spent in a specific way.
There will be no widespread condemnation of this tax measure. I certainly have not heard any criticisms of it in my constituency. Taxpayers realise that it is their sons and daughters and brothers and sisters who will be the direct beneficiaries under this scheme. With the consensus for wage restraint in order to maintain and increase employment it is imperative that we do this in this way to ensure that those already in employment will have jobs and those who have no jobs will ultimately get them.
On the expenditure side I would like a set allowance. Whether it is a training course in AnCO, a work experience course with the National Manpower Service, a job under a specific project laid down by the agency, I would like to see a fixed allowance under which those involved would get the same rate of benefit, not a meagre rate as is the case with certain benefits at the moment. Young people with AnCO do not make PRSI contributions. They get no entitlement whatsoever. I would hope there would be some system of stamp contribution for every week they are with the agency.
The real importance of this Bill and of the agency lies in its financial independence. A minimum of £63 million will be allocated. This sum will be topped off by the EMS. Here we are doing more than any other member state per thousand capita and that shows the Government's commitment and the kind of resources we are prepared to invest in solving this problem of youth unemployment. I understand £10 million is to be allocated for 1982. That will not be enough.
