Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 March 2014
1. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the way in which he will address the falling level of employment in the 15 to 34 age bracket shown in the recent quarterly national household survey report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12292/14]
View answerTá a fhios agam gur inniu Lá na Gaeilge agus beimid ag baint úsáide as an nGaeilge agus as an mBéarla. We welcome the improvement in the employment figures, but when one looks at the breakdown and the population figures, there were 13,500 fewer people aged between 15 and 34 employed compared with 12 months previously. The number of 15 to 24 year olds in the workforce fell by 11,900 and there is a further drop of 24,700 in the number of people aged 25 to 34. We raised the issue recently with the Minister in the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. We have a problem in the population cohort I indicated. At the time the Minister attributed it to demographic changes but the reality is that emigration is a key issue and I look forward to discussing his proposals in the area.
I recognise that people in the 15 to 34 age group have been seriously affected by job losses in recent years. The latest quarterly national household survey shows that in spite of the creation of an additional 61,000 jobs in the economy in the year to the end of 2013, employment among 15 to 34 year olds decreased by 13,800 year on year. We clearly have a long way to go but in the past year employment increased by 3.3% and it was the first year where every region demonstrated employment growth. There has been an increase of more than 1,200 jobs per week in the private sector compared with more than 1,600 per week being lost in that earlier period. Clearly, the best way to address the needs of this age group is to continue our efforts to support job creation and help those who are unemployed to get back to work. The Government continues to work on those twin objectives through the combined efforts of Action Plan for Jobs and Pathways to Work.
A number of actions in both strategies are targeted at, or amenable to, younger people. These include the JobBridge programme, the youth guarantee, MOMENTUM and Springboard training courses, and the ICT Action Plan. These initiatives are collectively delivered by the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Education and Skills. The Government is taking steps to increase the number of places and make other enhancements to those schemes for younger people, where possible. For instance, Action Plan for Jobs includes a commitment to ring-fence 2,000 places on the MOMENTUM programme for those under 25 years of age.
For my Department’s part, we are putting a particular focus this year on supporting entrepreneurship and will increase the range of supports available to entrepreneurs, including young entrepreneurs. We know that start-up businesses create two thirds of all new jobs and we need to support people with good ideas who can create those jobs. Action Plan for Jobs 2014 also places a focus on supporting the recovery of the domestic economy in areas such as construction, retail and tourism where there is potential for significant jobs growth as the economy recovers.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House
As a Government, we recognise that too many people, including younger people, have yet to see evidence of economic recovery in their own lives. That is why we have designated 2014 to be the year for jobs. All of the actions we are taking are aimed at supporting people to enter or re-enter employment, and at providing alternatives for those who might be considering emigration.
Employment rose by 3.3% but average weekly earnings are down by 0.6%. The income tax figures for the first two months of the year are flat compared with the same period in 2013. If we have the kind of employment growth the Minister is trumpeting constantly, there should be a similar growth in income tax receipts. This shows the jobs being created are paying less and that is still driving many people out of the country.
Almost half the additional jobs are self-employed. I welcome that people are taking that step but we will not be able to make a call on their long-term sustainability for a number of years in terms of income and job creation potential.
In the past three years 105,000 people left the country. We have a higher rate of emigration in this country than in the EU 15. That seems to be the response to this cohort. We need a specific, targeted initiative involving entrepreneurship but also involving employment creation because not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur. There must be a form of employment creation programme focused on this generation - the golden generation - that will lead the recovery if young people are given the chance to stay.
I do not accept the thesis the Deputy has put forward that people who set up their own businesses are in some way inferior in terms of job creation. We want to encourage entrepreneurship. It is a welcome indication that there is a high level of start-up and people setting up as self employed. High levels of company formation are clearly also evident in the figures.
I fully admit that migration is far too high. The net migration of 35,000 last year is too high. It has been at that level for a number of years. The only sustainable response to migration is employment creation. The Deputy must acknowledge, despite his perusing of income tax figures to try find something negative, the truth that in the private sector we created 66,500 jobs in the past 12 months. That is a really significant achievement by enterprise in Ireland. We need to build on that but we also need to ensure young people get a fair crack of the whip because inevitably the doors were closed to younger people and that is why JobBridge, Jobs Plus and other such schemes are aimed at trying to reskill and get people, in particular in those younger age groups, into opportunities.
I am not making any thesis that anyone who sets up their own business are inferior. What the Minister read into my argument in his response was that half of those jobs he claimed he created were in fact created by people who have the courage and the ability to set up their own company. If one takes those figures out of it, then 33,000 jobs were created. The fact is that the jobs are lower paid and incomes are not rising. We have to offer some sort of alternative. The Minister needs to put a focused strategy in place involving the State agencies and local enterprise offices to give this age cohort the support it needs and the encouragement that there is a future for it on this island.
That is exactly what we are doing. This year we will put a focus on entrepreneurship, particularly youth entrepreneurship. Last year, we focused on women starting up their own businesses and we got a strong response to that. One cannot discount people who set up their own business and pretend these are not jobs. These are people working in the economy, creating wealth and opportunity. They have to be nurtured in the same way as people in paid employment taken on by established enterprises. They are both equally important and we try to develop them together.
It should not be abused by the Minister so as to massage the figures, however.
