Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 31 May 2016
498. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Social Protection the total expenditure on the Youth Guarantee in 2014 and 2015 and the actual or anticipated contribution of European Union funding in both years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13407/16]
View answerThe Government’s Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan (YGIP) identifies planned activity levels for young people on a range of programmes, and estimates the share of the budget for these that will therefore be spent on young people. Running costs of the Intreo employment and benefits service cannot reasonably be allocated across age groups – given that, for example, individual staff deal with both young and older unemployed clients in their day-to-day work. Therefore data on the actual total expenditure on the Youth Guarantee for the years 2014 and 2015 are not readily available.
The YGIP 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 delivered in Ireland as a dedicated priority axis within the ESF Operational Programme for Education, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) 2014-2020, for which the Irish Managing Authority is the Department of Education and Skills.
I am informed that the total amount allocated to YEI under PEIL is €204,436,257. This allocation is comprised of €68,145,419 of specific EU funding for YEI, with matching amounts from Ireland’s ESF allocation and from Exchequer funding.
It is intended to claim funding in respect of expenditure on certain programmes which make up Ireland’s response to the EU Recommendation on a Youth Guarantee, including Youthreach, the JobsPlus Incentive Scheme and Momentum.
The overall range of such programmes is set out in the 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.
