Youth Unemployment: Motion

Senator Kathryn Reilly

I move:

That Seanad Éireann notes that:

- 30.4% of under 25s were officially unemployed in 2012;

- this is the fifth highest rate of youth unemployment in the eurozone, after Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy;

- our youth unemployment rate has more than trebled since 2007;

- 53,800 under 25s were officially unemployed at the end of March 2013;

- the cost of youth unemployment to the Exchequer is estimated to be €3.16 billion annually;

- the number of young people in employment has fallen by 24,100 in the last 12 months;

- since Fine Gael and Labour took office the number of under 25s in the labour force has fallen by 34,500;

- 31,181 under 25s emigrated in the year up to April 2012;

- 18% of young people are not in education or employment or training, the fourth highest rate in the EU;

- of the 333 actions listed in the 2013 Action Plan on Jobs only four relate to young people;

- the European Council Recommendation of February 2013 announcing a youth employment initiative with a fund of €6 billion, while welcome, is not sufficiently resourced;

- the International Labour Organization has called for an investment of €21 billion EU wide to tackle youth unemployment;

- the proposed youth guarantee pilot project in Ballymun, while welcome, may not be up and running until 2014;

and agrees that:

- the Government is not doing enough to address the crisis of youth unemployment;

- the Government must urgently develop and resource a youth employment strategy;

- a central part of this strategy must be a high quality youth guarantee scheme that provides young people with an offer of employment, education, apprenticeship or traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed; and

- the youth guarantee scheme must be adequately funded, accessible to all, target those in greatest need and work in the interests of young people.

I welcome the Minister for Social Protection to the House to discuss this important issue. Usually during Private Members' time the Gallery is filled with representative organisations but youth organisations are at present gathered at a round table in the Civic Offices at Wood Quay hosted by the National Youth Council of Ireland and the European Youth Forum to discuss the implementation of the youth guarantee and the role for youth organisations in the future. I hope the Minister will make contact with these organisations to discuss the feedback from that round table.

Last week, I organised a conference in County Cavan on the youth guarantee which was attended by representatives of youth organisations, the European Commission and Parliament and other organisations with an interest in the matter. The broad discussion we had at that conference included contributions from a considerable number of young people. Several of the points I will be making today arose in that discussion and I will put a number of questions to the Minister that I hope she will be able to answer.

The motion sets out statistics on youth unemployment drawn from the CSO and Eurofound. They make for depressing reading, with 53,800 people under the age of 25 listed as officially unemployed and 24,100 fewer young people in employment now compared to last year. Since this Government took office, the number of young people in the labour force has shrunk by 14%, which equates to 34,100 young people who are no longer in the labour market. The number of young people not in employment, education or training in Europe equates to the population of the seven smallest member states of the EU. That is a harrowing figure.

While some of the young people who have left the labour market have gone into full-time education or training, most have emigrated in search of work or disengaged from local employment services. Many of the youth organisations I have consulted regard the Government's response as completely inadequate given the scale of the crisis facing young people. Only four of the 333 recommendations in the Action Plan for Jobs published in February related to young people. That is simply not good enough.

I ask the Minister why the Government has decided to locate the youth guarantee within the Department of Social Protection rather than the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. What role will the latter Department play in the pilot project and eventual State-wide youth guarantee scheme? The representative from the European Commission Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Catherine Blair, who attended our conference on Friday, stated that the issue will not go away on its own because young people need specific support. It will require a cross-departmental action plan and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation cannot shirk its responsibility in that regard.

The announcement in February of EU funding for youth employment initiatives, including the guarantee, is welcome but I share the concerns expressed by others, including the European Youth Forum, that the €6 billion allocated to these initiatives is nowhere near enough even to begin to address the problem. I am also concerned about the gradual implementation of the scheme. The Council recommendation on the youth guarantee called for schemes to be implemented at the earliest opportunity, while stating that member states with budgetary difficulties or high numbers of young people not in employment, education or training could consider more gradual implementation. However, we seem to have interpreted the recommendation as requiring us to adopt a more gradual implementation of the schemes. Why have we adopted this gradual approach despite our high level of youth unemployment? Given the social and economic consequences, the problems of youth unemployment and emigration cannot be put on a waiting list until the economic situation improves. Some 14% of young people under the age of 25 have left the labour market in the two years since this Government was formed.

If we wait any longer, we will only exacerbate the problem even further.

How is the Government proceeding in respect of the timescale for the implementation of the guarantee in the current circumstances? What criteria are being used and what type of phasing is involved? From the presentation that was made on the youth guarantee, I understand the Commission is very keen to obtain action plans from the various governments in the context of the roll out. I sensed some frustration with regard to the slow response from various member states on how the guarantee is to be rolled out. The Commission wants to hit the ground running from 1 January next. Has the Government developed a plan and forwarded it to the Commission? If not, will the Minister indicate when this will be done? I do not believe we should exit our Presidency - at the core of which has been the youth guarantee - without having our own blueprint in place.

The Ballymun pilot project is very welcome but I have a number of concerns. When will the project be up and running, when will the various stakeholders be brought together, how will it be evaluated and how will the lessons learned be transferred to other areas, particularly those with less well developed community supports? Is the Minister in a position to provide a guarantee to the effect that youth organisations will be centrally involved in all aspects of the pilot project and the subsequent State-wide youth guarantee?

We are all aware that the cost of youth unemployment is massive. According to one study, the economy loses €3.16 billion annually as a result of our high level of youth unemployment. This roughly equates to 2% of GDP. The cost for young people and their families and communities is equally devastating in economic, social and emotional terms. There is going to be a demographic fallout from our high level of youth unemployment and it prompts us to inquire as to who is going to pay for pensions in the future. The guarantee should not just revolve around putting people in quality jobs today, it should also be about preventing poverty and social exclusion into the future. That is why we need a youth guarantee scheme which is going to assist the 53,800 young people who are currently unemployed to get into training or employment.

I firmly believe that the design, implementation, governance and ongoing evaluation of this scheme should involve the relevant Government Departments, employment services, educational and training services, employers, youth services, youth advocacy organisations and young people. A phrase that was used at the conference I organised was "Nationally led but locally delivered". Timo Mulari of Allianssi, the national youth council of Finland, used the term "public private people partnership" in the context of the implementation of the guarantee. That is something which is very important.

If we learn from previous experience, then the scheme should focus on the long-term unemployed, those with low skill levels, those who are furthest from the labour market and those who are not currently engaging with employment services or who are not involved in formal education or training. Our public employment services have a crucial role to play and they need to be fit for purpose. We need to obtain a real and accurate sense of the number of young people who are unemployed. The scheme should be open to all and not just to those who are currently registered with the public employment services. As everyone is aware, there are many people who are hidden from the live register. These individuals may not, for example, be eligible for jobseeker's benefit or allowance. In addition, they may not be on the radar for some other reason.

An individual needs assessment and personal plan will be required for each person who engages with the youth guarantee process. An important point was raised this morning to the effect that we need to track youths who engage with the youth guarantee system and we must ensure that we are not just shifting them from one scheme to another. We must examine how we can create sustainable situations for them in the aftermath of the initial couple of months for which they are on the youth guarantee scheme. It emerged earlier today that there are no statistics for 39% of those youths who engaged with the youth guarantee scheme in Finland. This means that the Finnish authorities do not know what happened to 39% of those who were involved with the scheme. It is important, therefore, to ensure that tracking is put in place.

Many young people attended last weekend's conference and gave voice to their concerns. One of those concerns relates to the fact that they do not necessarily want to be employees but rather they want to be employers. These young people want to start their own businesses and become entrepreneurs. However, they cannot obtain access to funding and neither can they get loans guaranteed. The youth guarantee will ensure that all young people under the age of 25 receive an offer of good quality employment, continuing education, apprenticeship or traineeship within a period of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. What is going to be incorporated into the guarantee for young people who are unemployed, who want to start their own businesses and who may not require education, training or an apprenticeship? I refer here to individuals who have the idea, who possess the necessary drive and who are ready to go.

My final point relates to costs. If 53,800 of those under 25 are officially unemployed and if best practice - as highlighted by the National Youth Council - places the cost per participant in the scheme at approximately €6,600, we will need approximately €335 million in order to deal with these people. As already stated, those who are off the radar are not included in the 53,800. With youth unemployment so rampant across Europe, our leaders should be collectively considering how we might move towards the estimate produced by the International Labour Organization, ILO, of €21 billion being required to combat youth unemployment as opposed to the €6 billion which has been set aside. Would it be possible for the Government to make strides in this regard either prior to the end of Ireland's Presidency or before the meeting of EU Labour Ministers is held in Berlin on 3 July? Who will be representing Ireland at that meeting?

I referred to the creation of sustainable situations for those exiting the youth guarantee. The Minister, in an article she co-authored, argued in favour of more investment in growth. How are we going to invest in the jobs that will be required in order to get young people who are currently out of work back into employment post the youth guarantee? What is going to be brought forward in that regard?

Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh

I second the motion. Táim thar a bheith buíoch de Cheannaire an Tí, an Seanadóir Cummins, as ucht an t-am seo a thabhairt dúinn leis an gceist seo a phlé mar is ceist iontach tábhachtach ar fad í. Bhí mé thiar i gCarna an la faoi dheireadh agus casadh iníon mo dheirfiúr orm. Tá sí 22 bliain d'aois agus dúirt sí liom nach bhfuil cara amháin fágtha aici i gCarna seachas cailín amháin eile atá ina máthair shingil. Tá gach duine eile imithe. My 22 year old niece who lives in Carna in rural Connemara recently informed me that almost all of her friends have left the area. She only has one friend left who is her own age. The only reason that girl has remained is because she is a single mother and cannot afford to leave.

It is important to note what the motion states. From the point of view of their amendment, those on the Government side appear to have stuck their heads in the sand to some degree. The motion states:

That Seanad Éireann notes that:

- 30.4% of under 25s were officially unemployed in 2012;

- this is the fifth highest rate of youth unemployment in the eurozone, after Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy;

- our youth unemployment rate has more than trebled since 2007;

- 53,800 under 25s were officially unemployed at the end of March 2013;

- the cost of youth unemployment to the Exchequer is estimated to be €3.16 billion annually;

- the number of young people in employment has fallen by 24,100 in the last 12 months;

- since Fine Gael and Labour took office the number of under 25s in the labour force has fallen by 34,500;

- 31,181 under 25s emigrated in the year up to April 2012;

- 18% of young people are not in education or employment or training, the fourth highest rate in the EU;

- of the 333 actions listed in the 2013 Action Plan on Jobs only four relate to young people;

- the European Council Recommendation of February 2013 announcing a youth employment initiative with a fund of €6 billion, while welcome, is not sufficiently resourced;

- the International Labour Organization has called for an investment of €21 billion EU wide to tackle youth unemployment;

- the proposed youth guarantee pilot project in Ballymun, while welcome, may not be up and running until 2014;

However, the Government amendment advocates the deletion of all words after "Seanad Éireann" and suggests a replacement text. What is the problem with the facts outlined in the original motion, which are true? If we are going to tackle the issue of youth unemployment, we must be realistic and acknowledge the facts. There is nothing in the motion which castigates the Government or its policies. Neither does it lay blame at the door of this Administration as opposed to a previous one. That is the status quo and surely we must acknowledge this fact. I call on all Government Senators to support the motion in the sense that it at least acknowledges the location of the starting point. Let us admit that a difficulty exists and let us consider how we can move on from it.

The motion tabled by Senator Reilly clearly and concisely highlights the lack of action on the part of the Government in respect of this matter. It is in stark contrast to the Government's amendment, which is actually quite laughable. Everyone is familiar with the adage "Lies, damn lies and statistics". The Government's amendment is an exercise in finding any kind of statistic in order to justify its position, while denying the truth of what is actually happening.

Those on the Government side are sticking their heads in the sand if they believe they are offering anything like a reasonable defence. I ask them, therefore, to withdraw their amendment. The amendment notes that the number of young people unemployed is down to 53,800, a reduction of 26,800. However, as the motion indicates, the number of young people in employment has fallen by 24,100 in the past 12 months.

We note that the number of under 25s in employment has fallen by 34,500 since Fine Gael and the Labour Party took office. What does that tell us? It tells us that the numbers in employment are not due to any increase in population but are due to the inordinate levels of emigration which are blighting Ireland. We all know the situation, and the Government is kidding itself if it believes that it is dealing with the matter. We all know families where a mother has had to see two, three or more children travel to the far side of the world to seek work because there is nothing here. We see families separated, and towns and villages emptied of young people. That is particularly evident in communities along the west coast; I see it at home in Connemara.

We had a course at Easter of student teachers who went to Carraroe to learn Irish, and I was asked to talk to them. Towards the end of the presentation I asked the approximately 200 teachers how many of them expected to have a job as a teacher in Ireland within the next three or four years. Approximately 10% of them expected to still be here at that time. That shows a huge lack of hope among the youth in that particular sector in terms of their future prospects of finding full-time employment as teachers here.

Shops and pubs that were once thriving are now struggling. GAA clubs are struggling to put 15 players on the pitch yet we see clubs in London and Warrington thriving, and clubs in Sydney and Melbourne have greater numbers than ever. If the Minister is wondering where the 26,800 who were on the dole are gone, they are not gone into jobs. They are most likely gone into employment but they are in Perth, Dubai or Toronto. Some 31,181 emigrated in the year up to April 2012, and many more have emigrated since.

The issue of emigration is closely related to the issue of unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, as it is the category between the ages of 22 and 35 who are most likely to be mobile. The key solution to the emigration crisis is to solve the unemployment crisis but the Government has effectively done nothing. It points to the pilot project in Ballymun but as the motion notes, it will be 2014 before we even see that, and that is a mere pilot. We can take it that it will be at least two years before the vast bulk of the population sees any benefit from that.

The motion notes that the youth guarantee needs more funding - currently, it has only €6 billion - and that the employment issue is the real issue, particularly in rural areas. The role of LDCs is unsure, and they are key to creating employment in rural areas, as is the capital budget in Údarás na Gaeltachta. This issue must be targeted in conjunction with the employment targets that have to be set down, particularly in rural areas.

Senator Deirdre Clune

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after ‘‘Seanad Éireann’’ and substitute the following:

‘‘notes that:

— the number of people in employment grew by 20,500 in the year ending March 2013, compared with a reduction of employment of 50,100 in the year ending March 2011;

— the rate of unemployment in Ireland has fallen to 13.7% at the end of Quarter 1 2013, down from 15% in Q1 2012;

— the number of people unemployed at the end of Quarter 1 2013 is 292,000, down 30,000 on Q1 2012;

— the number of unemployed young people aged under 25 has fallen by a third to 53,800 since it peaked in 2009, a reduction of 26,800;

— notwithstanding these positive developments, unemployment, and in particular youth unemployment, remains a serious concern;

— the Government has prioritised actions to stimulate employment creation and reduce unemployment under the Action Plan for Jobs and Pathways to Work Strategies;

— the Government has also prioritised Youth Unemployment as an issue to be addressed during Ireland’s term as President of the European Union. The European Union has agreed, under Ireland’s Presidency, a recommendation for a Youth Guarantee. This recommendation requires each member state to guarantee each unemployed young person under the age of 25 a job, training or education opportunity within 4 months of registration with the employment services;

— this Youth Guarantee is supported by the allocation of €6bn at EU level under the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF);

— Ireland has applied for advance funding, as part of an EU pilot initiative, to support the implementation of a Youth Guarantee project in Ballymun;

and agrees that:

— the growth in employment and the reduction in unemployment are to be welcomed;

— the Government should continue in its efforts to further increase employment and reduce unemployment with a particular and urgent focus on youth unemployment, and

— the implementation in Ireland of the Youth Guarantee agreed under Ireland’s Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers should form a pivotal part of the Government’s response to the challenge of youth unemployment.’’

I reserve my opportunity to speak at a later point in the debate.

Acting Chairman (Senator Pat O'Neill)

Is that agreed? Agreed. I call the Minister, Deputy Burton, who is very welcome to the House. The Minister has 15 minutes to reply.

Minister for Social Protection (Deputy Joan Burton)

I thank the Acting Chairman. Tackling the crisis in relation to young people being unemployed is an absolute priority for the Government, and we are driving the response both on a national and EU-wide level in the context of our Presidency.

Research evidence shows that spells of unemployment while people are young, particularly for young men, can have a permanent scarring effect on their lives. This is a particular problem during an economic downturn as young people tend to be more severely affected by job losses. That is because young people tend to be the most junior employees in an organisation and they also tend to work in sectors such as retail and services, which feel the brunt of any reduction in demand. It is crucial, therefore, that an effective strategy is in place to tackle youth unemployment before it becomes prolonged and systemic.

In the first instance, the Government's primary strategy to reduce youth unemployment is to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth. Past experience suggests that youth unemployment can be expected to fall relatively rapidly when recovery takes hold. That is the good point.

In this context, although there is a long way to go, the Government has stabilised the economy and economic growth has returned at a modest level, but it has returned. It must be remembered that in the period after 2009, the bank guarantee period, the economy lost 250,000 jobs. That haemorrhaging of jobs in that period after the bank guarantee was an enormous shock to unemployment in this country at every age level, but most particularly for young people.

Official labour market figures published by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, recently indicate that the number of unemployed people aged under 25 has fallen by 10,000 on the same time a year earlier to approximately 54,000. The statistics cited by the Sinn Féin Members are wrong. I do not know if that matters much to Sinn Féin but they are wrong. I am not sure who did the research but the other figures cited in their presentation are wrong. For instance, it is not true that the number of young people in the labour force has fallen by 24,000 in the past 12 months. The number of young people in unemployment has decreased by fewer than 4,000. In a range of 50,000 people the Senators' figures are dramatically wrong. If they are trying to forecast economic growth, they should try to work with the correct figures.

One of the obvious reasons we have these changes is to do with demographic patterns. If the Senators check with the CSO it will tell them the demographic patterns. In addition, as a consequence of the recession, and I am sure everybody here knows this, huge numbers of young people have chosen to remain in education. That is a factor. Emigration and the distress it causes is also a factor but I strongly suggest the Senators should check with the CSO or get their researchers to verify the facts with the CSO because the figures they are using are wrong.

The official labour market figures published by the CSO show that they have fallen by 10,000 on the same time a year earlier. That is a positive. The unemployment rate for young people has fallen from 29.7% to 26.6% over the same period. This downward movement in unemployment has bucked the trend in the EU as a whole, and that is important in the context of Ireland, where youth unemployment has continued to rise.

Furthermore, in the most recent 12-month period, virtually all the decline in youth unemployment was accounted for by a fall in the number of young people who were out of work for a year or more. From the comments made by Senator Reilly I understood that her concern is specifically about young people in the younger age group. I ask her to check the statistics because there are things that the people of Ireland have worked hard for and she should recognise and acknowledge that we are doing better than a huge number of other countries. Our rate is very high. We are not the fourth or fifth highest; we come after about eight other countries. The Senator should check the facts. It is hoped that the trend will continue as the economy recovers. Specifically, there is a requirement for specific national and EU-wide strategies to address the youth unemployment crisis.

I will start by discussing the European context because of the Government's role in securing an EU-wide youth guarantee and the crucial discussions now taking place on the way the guarantee will be implemented. These are very important.

Youth unemployment is an EU-wide crisis. The number of young people not in education, employment or training across Europe is estimated at 7.5 million. For that reason, the youth guarantee was identified as a major agenda item to be delivered during the Irish Presidency of the EU. Senator Reilly asked the reason I was involved. It is because of the catastrophic fall in employment that I mentioned earlier that I identified this as a priority, as I have done regarding other initiatives by my Department, particularly JobBridge, to help young people get work experience and get on the ladder to work. As the Senator is aware, my colleague, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, has significantly expanded a wide range of opportunities for young people in regard to education.

The EU's response since the outbreak of the financial crisis has largely been a fiscal one. That is the reason the Irish Government chose to make the European-wide framework for a youth guarantee a priority for the Presidency. I have long argued that there must be a social response to ensure the effects of the crisis on our people are lessened. The youth guarantee will be a crucial step in that regard.

The Government and the Department were at the forefront of securing agreement on the adoption of the EU Council recommendation on the youth guarantee. The recommendation received political agreement at the EPSCO Council meeting of social affairs and employment ministers on 28 February under my chairmanship and was formally adopted in April. There was very wide welcome and support for it because the Commission's initial documentation had only been signed off at the end of December. It is a mark of how concerned countries throughout Europe are that they were able, under the Irish chairmanship, to agree to the framework of the youth guarantee being adopted in February.

The recommendation states member states should ensure all young people under the age of 25 receive a good quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within a period of four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. As part of the European Council agreement on the 2014-2020 EU budget, it was decided, in association with the agreement on the youth guarantee, to provide €6 billion for a new youth employment initiative for regions with particularly high levels of youth unemployment. This funding will consist of €3 billion from the European Social Fund and an additional €3 billion from a new youth employment budget line. While it is recommended that the guarantee should be implemented as soon as possible, it is recognised that implementation could be more gradual in some member states experiencing the most severe budgetary difficulties and higher rates of youth unemployment. However, it is crucial to maintain momentum in terms of implementation of the recommendation.

At EU level, the Irish Presidency, particularly the Tánaiste and I, have pushed strongly for early production of implementation plans in all member states. The Commission has backed the Irish Government's approach that we should try to front-load this for countries with severe youth unemployment difficulties. This is under negotiation. I will be in Luxembourg at the end of next week and I hope the member states will agree to do this. The European Parliament has been very positive, particularly the socialist group, in pushing the youth guarantee and was doing so two years ago when it was not a very fashionable idea. I am not sure Sinn Féin was that taken with it when it was first discussed. It did not seem to like the idea, no more than it liked the JobBridge idea. None the less, the idea has gained general acceptability and support. I hope it will be advanced further at the Heads of State meeting.

For our part, the Government will review the range of youth employment policies in Ireland to assess what measures will need to be taken to commence the implementation of the guarantee. It is intended to produce a concrete plan for the implementation of the guarantee before the end of 2013. The Government intends to work with all relevant stakeholders to maximise the impact of a youth guarantee in Ireland. In this regard, we have sought funding from the European Commission for a proposed pilot youth guarantee project in the Ballymun area of north Dublin. Numerous organisations, such as IBEC, Ballymun Job Centre and the National Youth Council of Ireland, have agreed to participate in the pilot. Last year, I launched an initiative on a pilot basis specifically referencing young people with a disability in the Border, midlands and west region through European funds. These projects are under way as we speak throughout the region and are very positive.

More generally, the scale and nature of any additional measures required for the implementation of a guarantee at national level will depend on the trend in youth unemployment, and in particular on the number of young people likely to experience periods of unemployment of more than four months under current policies. While recent trends have been positive in this regard, the implementation of a guarantee will, almost certainly, require an expansion in the range of opportunities on offer to young people in the form of further education and training, internships, subsidised private sector recruitment and supports for self-employment. As Senators are aware, there is a review of apprenticeship in Ireland. Apprenticeship as we know it collapsed with the collapse of the construction boom. In any event, the old-style apprenticeship largely recruited young men and there were relatively few apprenticeships for young women, except in the areas of hairdressing and beauty.

Returning to the issue of the EU funds, the European Commission has published its legislative proposal for this initiative, which in the first instance will have to be considered by the Council and then, in turn, negotiated with the European Parliament. The timing of the expenditure for this initiative and the distribution of the funding throughout EU regions is not yet clear because the negotiations are ongoing. The Irish Government will over the coming weeks, while we still hold the EU Presidency, explore the possibility of front-loading funding towards the beginning of the forthcoming EU budget period which will run from 2014 to 2020. I do not want to pre-empt a final decision on funding but it is expected the Border, midland and west region and the south and east region will qualify for funding. Perhaps some of the funding under the UK package, if it decides to be involved, will apply with regard to Northern Ireland.

Senator Reilly spoke about young people. I am extremely anxious to develop a programme with regard to young people and unemployment which would specifically include young people with disabilities, whether intellectual or physical disabilities, and I hope the Seanad supports this. It is very important they should be included. The Sinn Féin motion does not address this, but it is important that the various organisations seek to be as inclusive as possible in this regard. We have put forward and discussed proposals on young entrepreneurs and I have had an opportunity to meet organisations of young people representing young entrepreneurs. This is positive. I also think young people who have a disability ought to be in the programme, and I hope, as Minister, to be able to influence this.

The Government has a number of programmes to assist young unemployed persons and keep young jobseekers close to the labour market. We have initiatives on education, training, job search assistance and guidance, work experience, and encouraging job creation. The JobBridge national internship scheme overseen by the Department is focused on providing work experience to young people. A recent independent evaluation of the scheme by Indecon Economic Consultants indicates that three out of five of those who complete their internships subsequently progress into paid employment. In the short period since it started, more than 17,000 people have participated, and it is gratifying to note that five months after they have completed an internship, more than 60% of young people have secured further employment. This is very positive because in a tight labour market, very good young people coming out with various levels of qualification find the labour market is closed and they hit a brick wall. This is what often makes it very depressing for them.

In the December budget, I secured funding for an additional 10,000 places this year across a range of programmes, including JobBridge, Tús and community employment.

Approximately one quarter of these places are expected to be taken up by unemployed young people. The Youthreach programme provides 6,000 integrated education, training and work experience places for early school leavers who do not have qualifications or vocational training and are between 15 and 20 years of age. The back to education allowance, which my Department runs, provides income maintenance for unemployed people. More than 20,000 people are on this scheme, of whom approximately 6,000 are less than 25 years of age. This scheme provides an important opportunity.

Approximately 12,000 people under 25 years of age completed training courses with FÁS in 2012, including apprenticeships and evening courses. This year, MOMENTUM, a scheme for education and training interventions as part of the Government's Action Plan for Jobs initiative, is being rolled out by the Department of Education and Skills. In the next month, I will launch a new initiative that I have developed and that I mentioned at the time of the budget, entitled JobsPlus. Under this scheme, an employer will receive an incentive of €7,500 for recruiting a person who has been unemployed and on the live register for between 12 and 24 months. The employer will also receive an incentive of €10,000 over a period for recruiting a person who has been unemployed for two years or more. At a typical starting wage, this incentive will cover approximately €1 in every €4 of an employer's wage costs. I will launch it next month. Young people are likely to be major beneficiaries of this initiative, as employers tend to hire young people when there is a recovery in employment.

The original Action Plan for Jobs set out a target of 100,000 net new jobs to be created by 2016. Many of these will be filled by young people. In addition, the Department of Social Protection's Pathways to Work strategy includes targets for increasing the number of long-term unemployed people moving into employment. Specifically, we want to return 75,000 long-term unemployed people to employment and to increase the exit rate of people on the live register for two years or more by 50% by the end of 2015. We also want to reduce the persistence rate - the rate at which short-term unemployed people become long-term unemployed - to 25% by the end of 2015. As more than two out of every five young unemployed people are long-term unemployed, these targets are important to young people.

As the Minister for Social Protection, I have a specific concern in this regard. Our young people represent a wonderful resource for Ireland. As a country, we have invested heavily in their education and care. Parents, families and communities have also invested heavily in this regard. Everyone wants the best for them. To answer Senator Reilly's question, I became involved because this represents a significant opportunity for Ireland. My job and that of the Labour Party - this is why we are called the Labour Party - is to help young people and their families to return to work. The best way to do so is to put in place educational and training structures that meet the needs of modern labour markets. We are receiving a great deal of foreign direct investment, FDI, and we must ensure that our young people are able to fill the ensuing jobs. We must also ensure that our young people have the confidence and encouragement to participate in employment.

I assure the House that the issue of youth unemployment, indeed, overall unemployment, is a priority for the Government. We will know that the economy has recovered when the unemployment figures drop, the banking issues are sorted and life returns to the construction sector, which traditionally employed many young people before the crash began in 2008. It is important that the young people who entered the apprenticeship system at the height of the Celtic tiger with the promise of work experience, only to be left without sponsors when the property market crashed half way through their apprenticeships, are offered the opportunity to complete their training, albeit perhaps in different fields. We need to be able to provide such training and education so that young people can use their skills in the workplace. We will do this through apprenticeships, internships, traineeships, State work experience, employment schemes and employer-subsidised jobs.

We need to examine the countries that have been the most successful in reducing their levels of youth unemployment, for example, Germany, Austria and Finland. The latter two are small countries and working closely with employers has been one of the keys to their success. My Department is building in this regard so that people can work from an early age in a training and education context so that they can gain experience of employment as they complete their educations.

Senator Averil Power

Fianna Fáil strongly supports the motion. The Minister has picked holes in the statistics, but there is no doubt that people of all ages and their families have been devastated by the economic crisis. Young people have suffered the greatest toll by far in recent years. This is true across Europe. The Minister cited some statistics and the Sinn Féin motion cites others, but the statistics do not capture the scale of youth emigration. Often, this element underplays the extent of youth unemployment, as tens of thousands of young people who have left Ireland are unaccounted for in the statistics. They are not present to raise this issue because they are struggling to make lives for themselves elsewhere. They worked hard to get the best possible education and enough points for college and they put in the effort and commitment required to get good degrees, only to find that there were no opportunities for them. This is an important point.

The National Youth Council of Ireland, NYCI, published an excellent report recently entitled "Time to Go? A Study of Youth Emigration in Ireland", on the impact of emigration on young Irish people. We can argue the figures, but this debate should be taken as an opportunity to put our heads together and come up with solutions, not to make party political arguments. This is my party's stance. The motion made excellent suggestions.

I welcome Senator Reilly's comment on young entrepreneurs. There is significant potential in harnessing their creativity and ideas. With little investment or support, we could give them the tools necessary to create the businesses of the future. They are well placed to do so. We should use the remainder of our debate to make constructive suggestions.

Last year, Fianna Fáil published a paper on youth unemployment. We have the same concerns as those that have been mentioned. For example, the Government has published a number of jobs initiatives in recent years, but no specific strategy on youth unemployment has been proposed. While I welcome the Minister's initiatives relating to other aspects of her brief, for example, JobBridge, her willingness to review and change them to ensure they are fit for purpose and her overall commitment to the area, there is a wide cross-Government gap, in that a specific strategy on youth unemployment has not been introduced. The European youth guarantee is a positive initiative, but it is significantly underfunded, given the figures announced today.

More than 7 million young people are unemployed in the EU so the figures announced so far are probably only a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed.

It is important to acknowledge how good it is that work is being done on this on a European level, and that there is a co-ordinated response, because we are not in this on our own. Other European countries are facing exactly the same problems we face and therefore we should put our heads together on an international level and come up with the most sensible strategy for addressing this on a continental basis. At the same time there is no excuse for delay on a national basis. There is nothing to stop the Government bringing forward a specific national strategy. Of course each country will be required to submit implementation plans and suchlike as part of the European process but that is for down the road. It is clear from the Minister's opening address that the process has started but there is still a way to go. I fully support the efforts of the Minister and her colleagues to use the Irish Presidency to try to accelerate this pan-European effort. That is very important but there is nothing to stop the Government focusing on the bringing forward of a national strategy ahead of what emerges in that regard. We have already lost time in this area and cannot afford to lose any more. To reiterate, too many young people have already left this country and they wonder if they will ever have a future here. They are looking to us to put initiatives into place now, not next year or two, three or four years down the road.

Last year, for this reason, Fianna Fáil published a specific strategy on youth unemployment. I ask the Minister to take the time to consider some of the initiatives we put forward, in regard to internships and improving and extending the JobBridge programme, to ensure that people are offering real jobs. I welcome the fact that many young people who are taking part in internship programmes get real jobs but there are also those who are being abused in the process. I know several young people who are on their third or fourth internship, which I do not think was the original intention. Internship should be for people who have the relevant education but need to get work experience that will help them to get inside the door elsewhere. It is important to review the internship schemes and change them, but much more important is the need to create real jobs. Instead of having people wondering if they are going to be volunteering endlessly or getting a slight top-up on their social welfare, we should create real jobs for young people. Many of them cannot afford to stay here and will end up leaving if their only real choice is to find employment elsewhere.

I welcome this debate. My party wants to be part of the solution to this problem and we see that as part of our role in constructive opposition. I hope all of us can do the same, both in the remainder of this debate and in the future. We should all put ideas out and work together on this. There is a temptation for us to argue about the causes of the crisis and be party-political about its impact but people are looking to us, to Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Féin, to put aside the politics and work together on sorting out the problem.

Senator Deirdre Clune

I thank the Minister for her contribution to date and I acknowledge the work that has been done, by her and the Tánaiste in particular, in progressing the youth guarantee and highlighting it during the period of Irish Presidency of the EU. She has ensured it is front-loaded, which is very important. This is a serious issue, not only for Ireland but across Europe. We all know the figures.

We should put this in context. We have lost very many jobs in this country, some hundreds of thousands. Our unemployment level was over 14%, with jobs being lost in the construction sector in particular, which used to employ many young people, in retail, banking and many areas of the services sector. I noted some business publications and news this week. The latest news from the Department of Finance, its economic bulletin of this week, shows that for the second successive year we have had growth, 1.3% last year. The Department, the IMF, the Central Bank, the European Commission and the ESRI all forecast that the economy will recover in the next few years, with growth from a minimum of 2.2% to a maximum of 2.7%, and from next year to 2016 they forecast an improvement of some 2% in GDP. That is positive and we should all acknowledge it. The Minister has mentioned the employment figures, noting how the numbers of those in employment have increased, according to recent bulletins. The figures for young people show they are gaining employment. At present we are seeing improvements in all the headline figures that were so depressing and disappointing in recent years. The services value index rose again, by 1.2% in April. Irish bond yields rose as did loans to SMEs this week, as acknowledged by ISME. Foreign direct investment continues to improve in this country. Governments do not create jobs; they create the environment in which jobs are created. The Minister has outlined her role in dealing with the difficulty young people have in gaining employment, a role that rests with her Department as well as with the Departments of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Education and Skills.

I will take issue with another point, if I may. The Minister has dealt with the motion tabled by Sinn Féin but I refer to that party's statement that of the 333 actions listed in the action plan for jobs only four relate to young people. That is completely untrue. Every one of those actions relates to young people and to ensuring that jobs are created within a suitable environment. I entirely refute that statement.

I mentioned the economy and how it is improving. Slowly we are beginning to see a start whereby we can get this country back in action. It is only by improving the economy that jobs can and will be created. The Minister outlined in the budget of last December the additional places she has secured in a range of programmes, including JobBridge, Tús, and community employment, with 25% of these expected to be taken up by young unemployed people. JobBridge in particular has been very successful. This has been established by an independent survey from Indecon. As the Minister noted, there have been 17,000 participants in the programme so far. The most positive result seen in the independent report by Indecon into JobBridge is the fact that more than 60% of participants have gained employment. It is an extremely positive and beneficial programme. I encourage the Minister to continue with it, as I am sure she will, because it engages across not only the public and private sectors but also the voluntary sector.

No single solution will cure our current unemployment problem but a number of issues are being tackled. Education and training are very important. Job searching assistance and guiding, gaining work experience and encouraging job creation are what the action plan for jobs is about. I particularly welcome the statement by the Tánaiste last week in which he agreed an action plan on youth unemployment with the OECD. From listening to OECD delegates reading their papers and hearing them speak on a number of occasions, I know they are really concerned about the level of youth unemployment, in particular throughout Europe. They have much experience in dealing with challenges and I know they will work at close hand with the Government in addressing this issue. The OECD calls continually for industry to engage in training structures, to offer either technical training or engage via third level institutes or universities to ensure the correct programmes and types of training are being developed so that young people can move into employment.

I refer to the entrepreneurship programme. There was a debate in this House recently on entrepreneurship. The microfinance scheme established by the Minister, Deputy Bruton, if not specifically targeted at young people, is available to them. It is for traditional businesses that cannot get collateral or support from banks. Funding is available, ranging from as little as €2,000 to €25,000. I urge Senator Reilly to encourage those people to whom she speaks to participate in this scheme because funding is available directly for the type of businesses in which young people who want to start their own enterprise should engage.

Senator Jillian van Turnhout

The Minister is welcome to the House. I very much welcome that Senator Reilly and her colleagues tabled this motion.

It is an important issue for us to debate, and considering the motion and amendment, one could see the glass as being half full or half empty. Nevertheless, it is really important that we are discussing youth unemployment. Unemployment, and specifically youth unemployment, is something that concerns us all across the House. Nevertheless, focus should not be solely on employment as for the age group in question, this is the period in which they are most likely to be in education and training. Unfortunately, the picture remains seriously bleak when we take employment, education and training into consideration.

Some people have already cited the Indecon assessment of the economic value of youth work report of 2012, which was commissioned by the National Youth Council of Ireland. We know Ireland has the fourth highest number of young people not in education, employment or training at 18.4%, compared to the average at 12.9% for the EU in 2011. In April 2013, the figure for young people who are long-term unemployed for more than 12 months was 27,857. I realise that is a reduction on previous months but it is still a considerable number of long-term unemployed young people. Ireland also has the highest number of children and young people under 18 at risk of poverty or social exclusion, with the figure at 37.6%, as compared to the 27% EU average.

We are all aware of the devastating impact that unemployment has, particularly on the social and health aspects of young people's lives, as well as morale and self-esteem. It is generally accepted that increased social pressures such as financial and employment worries can trigger mental health problems or exacerbate existing issues. Unless concerted action is taken, the mental health of young people in Ireland and Europe will decline in coming years. We know that in 2009, Eurofound, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, which is based in Dublin, conducted research indicating that across 21 EU member states, the cost of exclusion of young people from employment amounted to more than €100 billion. The study considered the cost of social welfare payments and contributions to GNP and it put a preliminary figure for the cost to society at €14,000 per young person who is not in education, employment or training. Some €11,000 would be from unpaid contributions like PRSI and PAYE and €3,000 is representative of benefit payments.

The cost to the Exchequer of youth unemployment is estimated to be €3.16 billion annually. Last December, the Independent group put forward a motion in this House on the importance of the value of youth work. We had good support across the House in our belief that the State must recognise the value of the youth work sector and its potential for a cohesive approach in tackling youth unemployment and exclusion. We know just under 400,000 young people benefit from youth work in Ireland and 53.3% of these are from socially or economically disadvantaged areas. Over 40,000 volunteers are involved in youth work, with almost 1,400 whole-time staff equivalents. Some 26% of young people in Ireland participate in a youth club or youth organisation, and that is the highest level in the EU. The Indecon report proved that for every €1 invested by the State in youth work, we save €2.22 as a State in the long run. This can be contrasted with the fact that youth organisations have received cumulative cuts during the recession, with the cuts running at approximately 30%. Youth organisations could be used as a vehicle in tackling youth unemployment but we are cutting their funding.

The youth guarantee is very important to me and everybody in this House because it will give young people an offer of a job, work experience, apprenticeship, training or combined work and training. It is hoped this will be found within four months of the young person finishing education or becoming unemployed. We should hope it will achieve the target of having 2 million young people out of unemployment by 2014.

I agree with the contention in the motion that the youth guarantee scheme must play a central role in the Government's strategy to address our young person not in education, employment or training, or NEETs, crisis in Europe. I commend the Government for signalling its support for the youth guarantee from the outset and making it a priority. Given what I have stated on the importance of the youth work sector, I also welcome the determination of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, in securing EU agreement on a greater role for youth work in supporting EU policy proposals for youth employment and social inclusion. I welcome the pilot scheme planned for Ballymun. It is good that we will have a pilot but we must consider local circumstances. I am a bit concerned about the length of time it may take to mainstream the process.

I am conscious of the time but I will comment on those who are most disadvantaged. These are the 9,000 young people who have been on the live register for three years or more. They have literacy issues and they are early school leavers. The have a poor relationship with State agencies. We must do much more to tackle the problems of this cohort of young people within the youth guarantee. The youth sector is well placed to work with this cohort, who are the hardest to reach. There should be a joint initiative between the Departments of Education and Skills, Social Protection, Children and Youth Affairs and Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

Has the Minister identified additional measures to support young people who are long-term unemployed in avoiding the weaknesses identified in the scheme already in operation in Finland and Sweden?

Senator Marie Moloney

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and the opportunity to speak on the EU guarantee. The wider problem of youth unemployment is something that has consumed this Government's focus since coming to office. The matter has been raised in the Seanad on many occasions and I commend Sinn Féin Senators for once again bringing it back on the political agenda through Private Members' time.

The Central Statistics Office recently stated that the level of youth unemployment had fallen in Ireland by nearly 10,000 in the year to May 2013. I will not get into an argument about figures as one can see the glass as half empty or half full. There is no denying that some of the fall may have come through emigration, activation or people staying longer in education. We must not believe that the job is done and the tough work has only started.

In the five years since 2008, this country has lost six out of ten jobs held by people under 25. That is a catastrophic collapse that has been a significant body blow to the morale of young people in this country. This has a devastating effect on families, communities and the Exchequer. There are even places where we cannot field a GAA team and clubs must band together to form a team. This proves that we are missing young people in this country.

I hope the recent approval of the European youth guarantee can offer some relief to young people in this country. A youth guarantee aims to provide every young person between 18 and 24 with an offer of a job, internship or training within four months of becoming unemployed. The fact that this progressive measure has been confirmed by the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs, EPSCO, Council meeting during the Irish Presidency of the EU means this Government is putting the unemployment crisis at the heart of political discussion both nationally and at EU level.

I commend the Minister, Deputy Burton, for her work in securing this approval. She is deeply concerned about the level of youth unemployment in this country and she is very committed to bringing forward measures to solve it. It is important to note the EU-wide youth guarantee scheme is partially funded by the European Commission, with 7.5 million young people across Europe not in employment, education or training representing 12.9% of young Europeans. It is highly unlikely that the €6 billion pledged by the Commission will cover all the costs of the scheme and as a result individual states will probably have to provide the majority of funding. Given the state of public finances, the funding for a full youth guarantee will not come overnight, and I hope the Government will continue the measures contained in the Action Plan for Jobs and reinforced in the last budget.

As outlined by the Minister, Deputy Burton, the Government's plan is to gradually implement the EU youth guarantee to obtain best value for money and the most effective results. The Government currently has a number of schemes in action designed to combat youth employment and long-term unemployment in particular. Currently, 12,500 young people are participating in FÁS schemes aimed at providing the skills to enter the labour market.

Youthreach has 6,000 young people receiving integrated education and work experience aimed at early school leavers. JobBridge, a scheme commenced by the Minister, Deputy Burton, is providing 2,700 people with work experience places. This year, Momentum, a scheme for education and training interventions, which is part of the Government's Action Plan for Jobs initiative is being rolled out by the Department of Education and Skills. Momentum will support the provision of free education and training projects to allow 6,500 long-term jobseekers to gain skills and access work opportunities in identified growing sectors. More than 1,250 of these places are assigned specifically for under-25s. I welcome today's announcement by the Minister of JobsPlus which will help the employer take on people who are long-term unemployed, and that scheme will be launched next month.

These are some of the many schemes by the Government designed to combat unemployment and, as I said before, these schemes are beginning to tentatively make an impact on the live register figures. A perfect example of this can be seen in the JobBridge scheme enacted by the Government. Over 60% of the participants in this scheme find paid work afterwards. We have seen from JobBridge that the Government needs to aid young people by providing them with the right education and skills. It is also necessary in the current climate to provide employers with assistance and confidence in taking on more staff. It provides an opportunity for employers to see the value and qualities of the new staff without the financial cost.

Ireland is not in a position financially to provide a Scandinavian style youth guarantee that costs and estimated €6,600 per young person. This means the Government needs to be creative and come up with fresh ideas. I commend the Minister and the Government for the energy they are putting into coming up with these ideas. It is important that when we speak about the training and education of young people we consistently remember the jobs market. I want to see Ireland providing our young people with the right tools to enable them to find work. I refer specifically to PayPal, which had to go outside Ireland for nearly 50% of its employees because Irish people did not have the right language skills to take up the jobs. We have to look to the future and work to the future and to do that we have to educate our youth in the right sector, and in particular in language skills.

Senator Diarmuid Wilson

I commend Senator Reilly and the Sinn Féin group for putting forward this motion. My party will fully support that motion. Senator Ó Clochartaigh read out a number of the points in the Sinn Féin motion and it is important to read some of them again because they are startling. Some 30.5% of under-25s are officially unemployed. The number of young people in employment has fallen by 24,100 in the last 12 months. Since this Government came into office the number of under-25s in the labour force has fallen by 34,500.