Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 May 2021
535. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Social Protection the progress made to include reference in all new statements of strategy to all sustainable development goal targets for which her Department has lead responsibility as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals National Implementation Plan 2018-2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25756/21]
View answerThe UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a significant and ambitious policy agenda that concerns all Government Departments.
The first National Implementation Plan (2018-2020), set out Ireland’s strategy to achieve the SDGs both domestically and internationally. The Goals are mainstreamed in domestic policy and the governance structure reflects a whole-of-government approach. 19 Actions were included in the first National Implementation Plan.
The development of the next SDG Implementation Plan has commenced, with the intention of publication later this year. A National Progress report will be incorporated into the Plan and will assess the progress on the 19 Actions.
Action 4 of the plan set out a commitment to include reference in all new Statements of Strategy to the SDG targets for which a Department has responsibility. My Department has lead responsibility on three SDGs and co-leads on two more. The Department is fully committed to supporting the implementation of these SDGs and the Department's Statement of Strategy 2020-2023 reflects this commitment. The Department's commitment to SDGs focuses on the areas of poverty and social inclusion - specifically enhanced social welfare for the poor and vulnerable, and an emphasis on improving youth unemployment.
The Statement of Strategy outlines our high level objectives in this regard:
- Delivery of goals set out in the Roadmap for Social Inclusion – including reduction in poverty rates and improvement in living standards.
- Focusing improvements in welfare supports for children and young families, lone parent families and people with a disability as well as supporting people into work will be prioritised as a means of reducing and alleviating poverty and inequality.
With regard to youth unemployment, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted significantly on the economy and unemployment rates. Prior to the pandemic, seasonally adjusted youth unemployment (15-24 year olds) stood at just under 12% in December 2019. Latest estimates, including all those in receipt of the PUP, gives a COVID-19 adjusted unemployment rate estimate of 61.8% for young people at the end of April. The inclusion of recipients of PUP brings students into the COVID-19 Adjusted Measure of youth unemployment and therefore inflates this measure.
As Minister for Social Protection, I welcomed the Council of the European Union’s recommendation of a reinforced Youth Guarantee. Central to the reinforced programme is the extension of the widening of the youth age bracket to include young people aged 25-29. As part of activation services provided by the Department of Social Protection via Intreo, young people under 25 receive the most intensive engagement. My Department intend to extend this up to age 29, and are currently putting in place the necessary system changes for this to occur.
Under the July Jobs Stimulus, my Department, along with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, are putting in place a number of measures to support people back to employment:
- Increasing the benefit of the JobsPlus recruitment subsidy to employers who hire young people, by expanding the young person rate from under 25 to under 30 years of age
- Providing access to additional full-time and part-time education, including targeted short-term courses, with over 35,000 new education and training places for those currently unemployed.
- Providing incentives to employers to take on more apprentices, with the provision of a grant of €3,000 to employers for each new apprentice recruited.
The Department’s new Statement of Strategy 2020-2023 is available at the following link.
https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/05b877-strategy-statements/
Specific references to UN SDGs are at page 8 of the Statement of Strategy.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
