Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 November 2015
87. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the extent to which she and her Department continue to address the issue of youth unemployment, with particular reference to utilising all available resources, including funding from Europe; the extent to which such efforts have been successful to date; the future expectations in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40126/15]
View answerThe Government’s primary strategy to tackle youth unemployment is to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth and the availability of productive employment for young people.
However, the Government recognises that as the recovery takes hold, there is a need for additional measures to ensure that as many as possible of the jobs created are taken up by jobseekers and young jobseekers in particular. This is the rationale behind the Government’s Pathways to Work strategy and the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan.
Within this framework, the Youth Guarantee sets a medium-term objective of ensuring that young people receive an offer of employment within four months of becoming unemployed. The main plank of the guarantee is assistance to young people in finding and securing sustainable jobs. For those who do not find employment, additional offers are provided for. Most such offers (over 70%) are in further education or training. Others are in community-based employment programmes such as CE, Gateway and Tus, or through the JobsPlus employment subsidy for private employment.
The Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan provided for over 28,000 programme opportunities for unemployed young people in 2014 and the same in 2015. This figure excludes some 24,000 places provided for young people through PLC courses and apprenticeships. These PLC and apprenticeship places, together with the wide range of vocational third-level courses provided for the young, although not reserved for unemployed jobseekers, nevertheless contribute to the spirit of the guarantee. The Plan also details how the Youth Guarantee is to be funded through the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) and European Social Fund (ESF).
The YEI is being managed as part of Ireland’s relationship with the ESF under the Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning 2014-2020, for which the Irish Managing Authority is the Department of Education and Skills.
I am informed that he total amount of YEI funding for which Ireland is applying in relation to the years 2014-2018 is €68,145,419 in respect of overall relevant programme expenditure of €204,436,537. It is anticipated that the YEI funding will be matched by a similar amount of ESF funding, with the balance coming from matching domestic expenditure.
In the normal course of events, this amount of YEI funding will be drawn down as final claims are made in respect of these years. However, I understand that an advance payment of €21,465,806.99 was made to Ireland under the YEI earlier this year.
YEI funding has been applied for in relation to only some of the programmes that go to make up Ireland’s response to the EU Recommendation on a Youth Guarantee. The overall range of such programmes is set out in the government’s Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan, which estimated annual expenditure on the core programmes involved of approximately €336 million, with a further expenditure on other relevant programmes (Apprenticeship and PLC courses) of €192 million. Actual expenditure on participation by young people on this range of programmes in 2015 will depend on the take-up of places, and can be estimated only after the end of the financial year.
