Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 June 2021
154. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Social Protection the funding that will be provided to deliver the new youth employment charter and the new EU reinforced youth guarantee process outlined in the Economic Recovery Plan 2021. [32270/21]
View answerAs outlined under the Government’s Economic Recovery Plan, which was launched on June 1st 2021, a central focus of the recovery process will be on helping people get back to work, through the provision of employment support, additional training and work placement opportunities.
Central to achieving this objective will be the Government’s forthcoming national employment services strategy, ‘Pathways to Work 2021-2025’, which is currently being finalised by my Department. By increasing labour market supports, and through the provision of employment support, activation and skills opportunities, the Pathways to Work strategy will act as a key delivery mechanism of the Economic Recovery Plan’s second pillar ‘Helping People Back into Work’.
In supporting people back into employment, the Pathways to Work 2021–2025 strategy will seek to minimise any long-term scarring effects of the pandemic on the labour force for those whose jobs are permanently lost while providing support to those unemployed pre-pandemic. The Strategy will also set out how an expanded Public Employment Service will utilise its existing and expanded capacity to deliver effective services in a post-COVID labour market with an overall target of increasing the caseload capacity by 100,000 per annum.
As part of this, my Department’s forthcoming Pathways to strategy will have a particular focus on young people, given the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on this group. This will include the development of a new Government Youth Charter and the implementation of the EU’s new Reinforced Youth Guarantee.
The Council of the European Union believed it was important to reinforce the existing Youth Guarantee to aid in alleviating the labour market impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on young people. This aim is complementary to our objectives in Government. As Minister for Social Protection, I welcome the Council recommendation on a reinforced Youth Guarantee and am committing to implement it under the forthcoming Pathways to Work strategy.
Central to the Reinforced Youth Guarantee is the widening of the youth age bracket to include young people aged 25-29. As part of activation services provided by my Department via Intreo, young people under 25 receive the most intensive engagement. My Department intend to extend this up to age 29, as per the new reinforced Youth Guarantee, and are currently exploring the necessary system changes to allow for this to be put in place.
The implementation and delivery of a new Government Youth Charter and the Reinforced Youth Guarantee will be in addition to wider employment support and activation services open to, but not targeted solely at young jobseekers. It is not anticipated that any additional funding will be ring-fenced for the two aforementioned new measures.
I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.
