Last night I was speaking of the problem confronting young people leaving school who cannot find employment. While I do not want to digress from that subject, I would point out that a weakness of the Coalition Government is that one does not get a unified voice on many problems. They speak in divers tongues. An excellent example of that was the statement last week by the Minister for Foreign Affairs on such matters as divorce and contraception. This afternoon we heard the Taoiseach say that they were purely the Minister's own views. Yet they were voiced last week with an air of authority——
Private Members' Business: Employment of School Leavers: Motion (Resumed).
Debate resumed on the following motion:
That Dáil Éireann condemns the Government's failure to take positive steps towards providing employment for school leavers.
(Deputy G. Fitzgerald)
What has this got to do with the motion before the House?
——which, perhaps, belied the whole intent. I will tell the Parliamentary Secretary what I mean by that. Not alone on such social matters do we get this divergence of views from the Government but they are incapable of speaking with one voice as a Government. Therefore, we have now reached the stage when the Ministers for Education, Labour, Industry and Commerce and Social Welfare are all involved in this problem of the thousands of young people who have been educated in various institutions, schools and universities but who cannot find employment. The time has come to call for a radical solution. Having lost faith in the ability of those Ministers to do anything constructive, I suggest that the Taoiseach take a look at the Cabinet and appoint somebody on that side of the House to act as a co-ordinator and spokesman for the Government in this matter.
There is no responsible person left to do it.
I can understand the cynicism of my colleagues in this respect. Since as Deputy Fitzgerald said, there is nobody responsible left to undertake that task, perhaps the Government might decide to go outside their ranks and appoint a person of proven ability who may have some original thinking on this problem, who will have as his first task the co-ordination of any efforts made by the Ministers I mentioned in seeking a solution. Such a person would have a very wide field to probe and he might well come up with something worthwhile. For instance, the Government have failed so far in the employment premium scheme. That is not my view alone.
The Minister for Labour has admitted that his target for this scheme was 10,000 jobs; he achieved 4,500.
AnCO, which does an excellent job in training with the resources at their disposal, must be enlarged. The trade unions and employers also have a vested interest. Then there are the educational authorities. It has been said in other places, perhaps with some justification, that our universities are famous. But, despite expansion in education and the excellence of university courses, we must ask ourselves whether we have got emerging from them high thinking on the problems facing us which would suggest we are making progress and that we might hope to have full employment in a short time. Even if one accepts a 3 per cent unemployment rate as representing full employment —accepted in modern thinking— among our youth today, we have at least a 12 per cent unemployment rate. That is the unacceptable face of Coalition Government. We do not intend accepting without the gravest protest.
Therefore, I suggest that the Taoiseach appoint a Minister for the co-ordination of efforts in the solution of the unemployment problem confronting our youth. If he cannot find a competent person within the parties forming the Government, perhaps he would take his courage in both hands, and appoint somebody outside the House as watchdog of Ministers whose task it is to do something about this problem. I envisage such a person calling the trade unions and employers together, letting them examine how they can offer jobs in existing industries and create new ones.
Our mercantile fleet needs to be expanded. We have two State companies, Irish Shipping Ltd. and the B & I. We should say to them we must expand our fleet. The greatness of Britain during the many centuries she was very powerful, until recently, was achieved by the fact that she always maintained a very fine mercantile fleet. While we do not join the imperialistic thinking of Britain, while we simply want to improve commerce, in the sphere of shipping we could employ many young men whether as ABs, engineers, officers or deckhands thereby attracting many young men into a seafaring occupation with Irish Shipping Ltd., B & I or An Bord Iascaigh Mhara who operate a very fine scheme. Indeed, they could enlarge their scheme to attract more and more men into the fishing industry.
I commend the action being taken by CERT to attract young people into the catering trade. They mention 500 jobs in their advertisements. If given sufficient help, they could recruit many more. Those are merely a few suggestions of places where young people could be gainfully employed.
With regard to other schemes, existing industry might well be helped to provide more employment if the Minister would examine the failure of the employment premium scheme and ascertain what is wrong or ask the trade unions what they feel about this matter. First of all, we must convince the Government that there is a solution to this problem. One gets the impression from Government Ministers, their spokesmen and the apologetic attitude of the Minister for Labour that they have lost faith, that they no longer believe they can solve the problem. Our youth, and indeed their parents, feel that way also. We must not let that thinking destroy any likely initiative on the part of the Government. I am sure the suggestions put forward by this party will bear fruit if they are examined by the Government.
It is not our intention to make any political ploy out of the plight of young people. That would be unworthy. Worthwhile suggestions have been made by speakers on these benches and I have tried to add to those suggestions. In conclusion, let me again ask that, as a first step, the Taoiseach will appoint a co-ordinator of ministerial effort either inside or outside the House so that we can make some progress towards finding a solution to this problem.
It is fairly clear that the problem of youth unemployment is just one facet of the general problem which, in common with other European countries, confronts us at the moment. It is important that in any measures we take to alleviate unemployment in any particular age group or any particular sector of our economy they should not be so designed as to damage other sectors. We must not adopt an attitude of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The Government have tried to approach the problem in a global sense with a view to helping all concerned, but as Members of this House we must recognise that there are particular problems facing young people at the moment. In my own constituency there is a very large number of young people seeking employment. They have the greatest difficulty in finding employment. To a large extent that is due to the general economic recession, but it is also due to other underlying factors in our economy which have been brought to the surface by the current difficulties.
I remember reading a manpower survey done in Drogheda in 1967 or 1968. At that time there was a fairly good level of employment here and in Europe, but even at that time young people with leaving certificates interested in clerical or office employment were having much greater difficulty in finding jobs than were those with skills and people going into apprenticeship or anxious to get some further qualification over and above the leaving certificate. Even at that time there was a problem for the young person seeking what is called white collar work. This anxiety for this kind of work derived not just from the educational system but also from the aspirations of parents who were anxious that their children should get clerical employment. This was creating problems even at that stage. It is now creating greater problems.
One of the things we must try to do—and this is not just a matter for the Government but for the community at large—is to make people realise the value of skilled manual employment. That is the employment in which job opportunities are arising to a very substantial extent. The most critical problem in my experience— I do not know if it is the experience of other Members—arises in the case of young people anxious to find clerical employment. If they would turn their minds towards other jobs they might find greater opportunities and less difficulties.
Now this is not to be interpreted as an attempt by me to pass the problem back to the young people themselves. The Government must retain a very substantial responsibility in the matter, but the matter is one the young people should consider very carefully. They should examine all the possibilities. Those involved in helping young people to find jobs should consult to an ever-increasing extent with the placement services of the manpower service of the Department of Labour because there they have available to them an analysis of the employment situation and of the jobs available. They can tell career guidance personnel, parents and the young people themselves that there are certain sectors in which there are still a number of vacancies and they should encourage the young people to reorient themselves in the direction in which jobs are available. In that way our educational system and career guidance will be tailormade to the needs of our economy and to the available employment opportunities. We can all play a part in this.
If Members will forgive me a little bit of local chauvinism, I should like to draw attention to a policy adopted in the vocational school in Navan. Young people who have done their group certificate and who would like to continue their education, without necessarily proceeding to the leaving certificate, can avail of a work training programme whereby they spend part of the week in a number of factories in the town, and part of the week at school discussing their experiences in these factories, while acquiring certain additional skills related to the particular job for which they are likely to opt. With a mix of education and work these young people will be in a position to make a much more realistic appraisal of their own talents and skills and a more mature choice of employment. If this sort of programme were initiated in other vocational schools it would help young people towards making a more rational choice. This programme provides a link between the school and the work situation. I would commend this experiment and I suggest that Members should encourage vocational schools in their constituencies to adopt a similar programme.
The Government's role in relation to the employment situation has been three-pronged. They have very substantially increased the public capital programme, which is spent on projects like schools, houses and so on, all of which directly or indirectly provide employment. This year there is an increase of over £100 million to £396.3 million in this capital programme. All this money will go towards providing jobs for the young and the not so young. The Government have also been concerned to assist the IDA in creating jobs with an independent long-term viability in the manufacturing sector.
The amount of money made available this year to the IDA is a record figure. It is £53½ million as against about £27 million in 1972-73. The increase in money made available to the IDA in this and previous years has had a substantial effect in creating new jobs. We must bear in mind that 1975 was one of the worst years we have had on the employment front, both for the maintenance and the creation of new jobs. In 1975 the IDA achieved the third highest ever number of new jobs created, when 833 projects were approved for grant assistance during that year involving a capital investment of £274 million. These projects approved in 1975 by the IDA, created with money made available by the Government, will provide employment for 16,500 people at full production.
It is important to realise that these jobs are going to a very substantial extent to young people. A survey was done on jobs created with aid from the IDA during the period April, 1971, to April, 1974, in seven of the planning regions. It was found that of the jobs created at that time by the IDA school leavers represented a major proportion of the new employees. A total of 28.3 per cent of IDA jobs created in the area covered by that survey went to school leavers. Therefore we can infer from that that a similar proportion of school leavers will have benefited from the third highest ever number of new jobs created by the IDA in 1975 and that, equally, a similar proportion of young people will benefit from the jobs created as a result of the record allocation of £53 million made to the IDA for the creation of jobs in 1976.
The third prong of the Government's effort to assist in the creation of employment for young people has been their training programme. Quite clearly young people who leave school and who go straight into the employment market are more vulnerable to an economic recession than people who take some additional job-related training prior to taking up employment. That is the reason the Government have devoted very considerable resources to AnCO as a means of combating the problem of young people. In 1975 over 7,000 were trained on AnCO courses and the majority of these were in the 18 to 25 age group.
Could we get the figure for how many were in the 18 to 25 age group? We have trouble in getting that figure.
I do not know if the figures are kept on that basis. In 1976 it is hoped to train 11,000 people as against the 7,000 in 1975. It is planned to provide training places in the training centres for 1,000 apprentices and 4,000 adults by 1978 compared with the present capacity of 718 apprentices and 2,140 adult places. In addition technician courses for approximately 800 students are being provided by the Department of Education at regional technical colleges.
The IDA have also involved themselves in the training process. With the aid of the European Social Fund they have temporarily undertaken to assist in a training scheme which will help both to alleviate youth unemployment and help to meet predicted skill shortages in several sectors. The IDA propose to assist with the financing and training by approved employers of apprentices over and above the employers' normal training requirements. On completion of their training those apprentices taken from the unemployed young will not be retained by the employers concerned but will be made available for employment as craftsmen for IDA assisted projects. An initial scheme has been agreed with the ESB and is being carried out in close co-operation with AnCO and the Department of Education. Other similar schemes are being negotiated with other bodies. The EEC Commission have approved assistance of £4,626 for AnCO operations carried out in 1975.
Could we have a repeat of that figure?
Assistance for operations in 1976 and 1977 will be £58,561. I do not think that figure is very reliable. It is not written out in a way that I can stand over it so I prefer not to rely on it.
I will not embarrass the Parliamentary Secretary.
The Deputy would never embarrass me. This is a new departure by the IDA. They will assist in training in firms young people who will, as distinct from the present situation, not be retained in those firms but will be available to be taken up in other industrial projects assisted by the IDA. Therefore, the IDA, knowing the type of project that is likely to be coming up for grant aid by them, will be able to directly identify the type of skills and the type of employers who can provide in their workplaces those skills for young people so that young people will be coming on the stream available to take up the jobs as and when they go into production as a result of IDA approved grants.
The Department of Education are also involved in the training of young people. A special scheme has been approved for aid by the European Social Fund in this respect. This scheme will operate in the regional technical colleges and other technical institutes in the vocational education system. It will operate in the following four ways: (a) in pre-employment or preparation for work courses (b) in secretarial courses (c) in technician level skills and (d) in one year foundation courses for young persons wishing to pursue careers as accountants, administrators etc. About 450 persons will be involved. The total cost in the current academic year will be £250,000 half of which it is hoped will come from the European Social Fund.
One of the problems on which I think all of us face criticism has been the feeling that married women are in some cases depriving some people of jobs. This is obviously a difficult question for any politician to deal with. But I shall make a few points which probably will not offer sufficient consolation to young people but it is important that the facts be put before them so that they can make their own judgment. First, it is correct to say that traditionally in European terms Ireland has had the lowest proportion of married women in her work force. The figures which I have available are for 1971 and they indicate that at that time 3.5 per cent of our total work force was married women and that was then the lowest in Europe. There are reasonable grounds to assume that continues to be the case. There is the additional consideration that from the point of view of the employer for any employee, whether he has formal training or not, expense is incurred in training whether in providing simple work experience or more formal training. If married women in the community have the training already, the expense by the employer or by another employer has already been incurred in relation to their training for a particular job and the employer is faced with the choice of taking on such a person in relation to whom he will not have to incur any training expense, explicit or implicit, or taking on instead a young person in relation to whom he will have to incur training expense. Obviously, there is a great tendency for him in his own economic interest to opt for the married woman because training expense will not have to be incurred in her case. It is precisely for that reason that the Government in their response to this problem have laid a special financial emphasis on training, through AnCO, the regional vocational colleges and the vocational educational committees, rather than on make-work projects.
We have deliberately chosen to move in the direction of training rather than make-work projects because in the long run it is only if young people have had training, which must be subsidised by the public purse, that they will be able to compete with other candidates available to employers, such as married women. For that reason, it is very important that school leavers should give careful thought to the different training opportunities that are available to them rather than simply leave school and look for a job without exploring fully the training opportunities that exist.
The women go to work because their husbands have no jobs and neither have the children.
The Deputy should allow the Parliamentary Secretary his time.
Let him tell us what they are going to do.
The Government have also initiated community youth training programmes to supplement AnCO's on-going training programme so that in this period of unusually high unemployment a number of young people with no previous work experience can usefully employ their time in acquiring basic skills and learning about work. Under the programme, boys and girls up to 25 years of age recruited from the National Manpower Service register are engaged after an induction period in an AnCO training centre in projects such as renovating houses for old people, painting and decorating hostels and similar activities. To date, the programme has been confined to four pilot projects in Dublin, Dún Laoghaire, Dundalk and Drogheda. It is intended to extend it throughout the country and about 50 projects have already been proposed to AnCO from different places. The important feature of this programme, apart from the fact that it is being aided by the European Social Fund, is that it will be assisting young people in doing work which itself has considerable social value. In doing that work they will not be just engaged in make-work activities but in projects supervised by AnCO and a deliberate training orientation will be built into all these amenity projects in which young people will be engaged.
The third and, perhaps, most interesting feature of the scheme is that the supervision of the young people on this work will be carried out by skilled tradesmen who were themselves previously unemployed and who will be engaged in working at their own trade but also in something new to them in some respects, passing on that trade to the young people involved in socially desirable projects. There is a package of elements each of which individually is meritorious but the fact that they have been brought together in one project and that the EEC is prepared to aid it—I understand on the original proposition of the Minister for Labour—is a valuable initiative in European and in Irish terms. I hope it will spread throughout the country. A very substantial number of applications have been submitted by my own county council in Meath and I am sure other county councils will do likewise. Anybody who has any amenity project which involves a skill content and which is being considered by any local authority or other agency should bring it to the attention of AnCO so that this scheme can be invoked.
It is quite clear that we are facing a difficult economic situation. It is clear that the Government policy of substantial investment in the economy, rather than the drastic cut-backs which some Opposition Deputies have tended to urge, is the right policy to bring us through this situation and ensure that our young people are ultimately placed in jobs with long-term independent viability and that our economy will benefit in the long run.
The Parliamentary Secretary indicated that the Government could not be expected to rob Peter to pay Paul. I want to say that the Government are robbing both Peter and Paul. Having listened to the Parliamentary Secretary, I am sure the young people will be very happy indeed and will have some indication of what faces them in the future. One solution mentioned by the Parliamentary Secretary is a very interesting one, that is, if a young person could not get the job he desired, he should be told that there were opportunities in other sectors. But where are the jobs?
The motion reads:
That Dáil Éireann condemns the Government's failure to take positive steps towards providing employment for school leavers.
The Government have not taken steps and are not aware of how many young persons are available for employment. The Minister for Labour told us today that he was not aware of the number of young people in the Ballyfermot area. The Government are only now having surveys carried out to ascertain the extent of the problem. This is a very serious problem and one that has been developing over the years. Yesterday the Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach told us that there were 83 school leavers on the register for employment. That shows how far out of touch the Government is with the situation. Each year there are 52,500 school leavers coming onto the labour market. Quite a number of these school leavers cannot get employment and have no prospects for the future. The Minister for Labour has given them no hope whatsoever.
I want to quote from a statement made last February by the Leader of our party:
Take our young people leaving school and college. Why should they bear the brunt of the economic crisis and be demoralised by the lack of job opportunities? We suggested setting aside a sum of £5 to £10 million to set young people to work on projects for community improvements in their own areas. We had in mind a minimum of red tape, with young people using their skills and knowledge in association with voluntary bodies and community leaders to plan and provide these badly needed projects. In this way thousands of young people could be employed and would be given the chance to do something valuable and worthwhile, while we of the older generation would be showing them in a practical way that we do care for them and do want to see their energies and enthusiasms put to work in the service of the people.
This positive step was proposed by the Leader of our party in February last. We are now told that the Government are about to set up projects on which 28 people are employed.
Something should be done in the short and long term to meet the very acute crisis which is upon us. The Parliamentary Secretary has pointed the finger at married women. The reason married women have to work is that their husbands and children cannot get employment. He tends to blame married women for the present serious situation. The Parliamentary Secretary and other Government speakers should indicate what they are prepared to do to relieve the situation.
Yesterday I asked how many young persons were unemployed in the Ballyfermot area, which is a very important area of 37,000 people. In that area, ranging from the ages of 15 to 20, there are 6,397 young people seeking employment from time to time. If we take the age limit of 25 which was given to us by the Parliamentary Secretary, we can add another 5,000 to that list. Therefore each year between the ages of 15 and 25 there are over 11,000 young persons seeking employment. I make a special plea on behalf of this depressed area in which there are thousands of young people who are unable to find employment. It is not good enough for the Parliamentary Secretary to say that they should seek opportunities in other sectors. I have here an immense document that goes out to school leavers each year, Civil Service Careers for School Leavers. This booklet is one of the jokes of 1976. One particular paragraph in this booklet states:
If the information you require is not given in the brochure, do not hesitate to write to us.
I am quite sure that every person who receives this brochure will be writing to the Department of Labour for additional information. We have been told that there are no jobs available, but the Department continue to send out elaborate brochures to schools. This type of deception cannot be allowed to go unheeded. This type of tactic has been used by the Government over a considerable period. People want to know where the jobs are. The Minister for Labour has not indicated where the jobs are. There are many other laughable paragraphs in this brochure. Indeed, in the last paragraph we are told that the system of recruitment is under review. The rates of pay which are included with this brochure are not in accordance with an Act passed in this House, the Equal Pay Act. The Minister has no right to circulate a document that is not in accordance with an Act passed in this House.
I should like to point out some differentials in this leaflet. For instance, the pay for a male post office clerk is £61.81 and for a female post office clerk it is £52.49. For an appointment as assistant forester a man is paid £3,527 and a woman is paid £3,086. If you go right through this leaflet you will see how the Minister has broken the law. As soon as the Equal Pay Act was passed the Minister was under an obligation to enforce it. He has now found out from a higher authority that this document is wrong and he has broken the law on this, as he tried to do on other occasions.
The social dangers for young people who are well educated and have no opportunity of employment are immense. A crash programme should be implemented even at this late stage when the Government are about to go to the country. It will not be too long before they go to the country having robbed Peter and Paul as the Parliamentary Secretary said.
Deputy Moore spoke about Ministers speaking in divers tongues. This is true. As I pointed out last Sunday, Government Buildings are now known as the Tower of Babel. There everyone speaks in a different tongue and nobody understands anybody else. That was the situation last night when we were listening to the Minister for Labour and it was the same situation tonight when we listened to the Parliamentary Secretary. He gave us solutions about which, I am sure, the school leavers will not be too happy when they read his speech tomorrow.
If people have been educated and promised jobs, but then find there are no jobs available, this could give rise to social tension. This is a very serious problem which the Government will have to counter at the earliest possible moment. Parents who have spent money educating their children in anticipation of future careers now find that these careers are not available. All the brochures in the world will not make jobs available. What we want now is employment for school leavers. There is no point carrying out surveys now; they should have been carried out a long time ago. Then the Government would have been in possession of vital information when dealing with school leavers. Must it be the duty of the Opposition to keep harping on this problem so that the Government will be stirred into action?
Time and time again Deputy Fitzgerald, Fianna Fáil spokesman for Labour, asked the Government to take action, and warned them of the social tensions that would, and are, arising because there are no opportunities of employment for our school leavers. They are being left high and dry. They are left with a feeling of hopelessness. They feel cheated and frustrated because the Government have failed to respond to the call of the Leader and members of my party. This situation is building into a social time bomb. It it time the Government gave the young people some hope for the future and an opportunity of employment.
We are told that there are 147,000 people unemployed. The number of school leavers registered for unemployment is only 83. This shows how completely out of touch with the facts of life this irresponsible Government are. The Parliamentary Secretary, the Minister for Labour and other Ministers, all the intellectuals in Government, will have to be educated about the problems that confront the nation. They admitted that they have no plan for the future. The Minister for Finance indicated that there is no social and economic plan for the future because the Government do not know the real extent of the problem.
I do not want to see our young people used as pawns. Some young people had hoped to get employment this year at home or abroad. They are being frustrated by the situation which has developed in the schools. Their future is at stake. Their future is held to ransom by a dispute between the Minister and teachers.
Deputy Moore mentioned the money the Minister made available sometime ago. He said the job target was 10,000 but that that figure had not been reached. The money made available in that employment scheme could not be applied to school leavers. The Minister is deliberately misleading this House and school leavers if he indicates that one penny of the money made available for the premium employment scheme——
The Deputy must not allege that a Member of the House was deliberately misleading the House.
If the Minister comes in here and tells a deliberate untruth, he is misleading the House, and that is what he did last night.
The Deputy knows this is accepted practice in the House.
The Minister for Labour was a stranger to the truth when he made his statement last night. I do not know what phraseology one can use to get this point across but they are the facts of life. In my opinion, the Minister has misled me and the House. He is not here now but I am sure the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and others would agree that not one halfpenny of this money could have been made available to put young people to work because it only applies to people who are out of work for a specific period and drawing social welfare benefits, and then go back into employment. Some school leavers cannot get social welfare because they have no stamps. They are told if they have stamps to come back and they will get social welfare benefits. There are no jobs available for them to get stamps.
The Government's case, as presented to this House, reflects a lack of knowledge on the part of the Ministers, the intellectuals, who appear to be so far removed from the realities of life that a re-education programme will have to be set up by Fianna Fáil to show them the real problems that confront the nation.
As I said, I do not want to detain the House from the other speakers on this side of the House, seeing that there are no other Members of the Government side to make a contribution. Last night we had the spectacle that there was not a single Member on the Government benches available to make a contribution to this debate, which shows clearly the interest of the Government, both the Fine Gael Party and the Labour Party, in this great problem that confronts our young people and the nation. They had to be dragged into the House last night to get this debate going. They have shown clearly during the course of this debate and through the recent statements of a variety of Ministers that they are utterly irresponsible. The Parliamentary Secretary does not know what was in the Minister's mind or in the Minister for Labour's mind; neither does the Minister for Labour know what was in the Minister for Education's mind. There is no question of collective responsibility. It is a hit-and-miss situation. They are heading for the road and you can see them running fairly fast.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs have been trotting around trading their wares in the last few weeks——
The Deputy must keep to the motion.
——and creating a smokescreen in an effort to deflect attention from the problems of the school leavers who have not got employment. The pill is no solution to the school leavers' problems, as suggested by the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs.
The Deputy must keep to the motion.
They want jobs, not pills.
The problem before us is a considerable one. The terms of the motion cover a wide field, and I do not propose, in the 12 or 13 minutes available to me, to offer solutions to the whole problem. I am hoping however that, in referring to one aspect of the problem and in making one or two positive recommendations to the Minister, he will accept the sincerity and the urgency of the case I make and its relevance to the problem, having regard to the duties which fall upon him towards our young people.
I said here last month that when the history of the present Coalition is written they will be described by all who examine the many failures for which they have been responsible as the Government that shattered the dream of the young people of Ireland.
Last year many school leavers could not obtain employment, and as a result there was a return to school of many thousands who normally would have entered upon employment. Those youths and young students who were moving along in the stream find themselves now undergoing the annual and normal frustrations and anxieties that attach to Department examinations. Those anxieties are burdensome enough but the students attending our colleges of technology and regional colleges have the attendant and very serious anxiety that as of now there will be no examinations for them to take.
I am making firm and practical proposals which I hope the Minister will accept. The difficulties existing arise from what we can euphemistically call misunderstandings between the Minister for Education and the members of the TUI. The custom has been—if you will bear with me for one moment, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle I will relate this to the problem of the school leavers—that in areas of such misunderstanding the Minister for Labour is the appointed Minister to bring the opposing sides together. We heard yesterday the Minister's statement of his case, and today I have the statement by the TUI indicating in a paragraph of a press release, which I want to put on the record of the House, that, "if the Minister for Education agrees to the proposal", that is, to put the matter before the Labour Court, "the officers of the union undertake to recommend to the executive committee that, pending the investigation of the matter by the Labour Court, the examinations will be set and marked this year."
In regard to students who are leaving school this year and in an effort towards easing the anxiety and the frustration attaching to leaving school which have been so admirably presented by other speakers, I suggest to the Minister for Labour that this is one area where he can make a useful contribution. It is not an area where he can claim that, because of prevailing climatic conditions, blizzards or storms, or because of the position abroad, he is unable to act. This is one area where there is no difficulty whatsoever in his making a worthwhile contribution.
I regret that the Minister is not here but the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance are present, and I am conceding that they share my concern and the concern of the House in respect of the injustice which is being done by senior members of the community to the young people of this nation. There was a time when the nature of things was that the elders worried about the actions of their juniors. It is an extraordinary turn of the wheel that the reverse now happens and in respect of this matter the erstwhile prodigal son is now the prodigal father, and the people who are guilty here in squandering that which ordinarily and rightfully belongs to the youth are the elders of this nation, and in a matter to which I specifically refer here, the Minister for Education——
The Deputy promised he would relate his remarks to the motion.
With the respect that is due to you. I should not have to strain very far to justify my remarks in relating them to the motion which talks of the plight of school leavers. At the moment we have——
The provision of employment.
Provision of employment for school leavers, and ordinarily inside the next two months there will be thousands of school leavers coming on the market. Because of the botheration that exists between the Minister for Education and the TUI there is this uncertainty as to whether or not they can, as is their duty, leave school at all. That I suggest is very relevant to the matter of young people leaving school and their prospects of employment. If they cannot leave with that which is the normal qualification in respect of their attendance, surely it will be conceded that that in itself is injurious to their prospects of obtaining gainful employment.
Relevant and related to that is another matter, and here I am speaking with relevance to the position of the Minister for Labour. A kindred botheration in respect of this is the question of technicians employed. In this area the botheration arises from the fact that the VEC, who nominally are the employers of these technicians in our colleges, accepted that these technicians should have parity with technicians in other areas. When that recommendation went to the Minister he refused to accept it. An application has been made to the Employer/ Labour Conference to have that subject resolved. I am appealing to the Minister for Labour to use his good offices towards having that request which has been made granted.
Appealing to the Minister for Labour is like throwing grain among briars, it will not grow.
Years ago I was attached to a club the slogan of which was nil desperandum. I never lose faith or hope. Perhaps that hope and faith are misplaced. I am hoping that on this occasion they will not be. Apart from everything else there is little difficulty for the Minister in granting that which I request, that he would indicate his concern for school leavers by notifying the officers of the Employer/Labour Conference that there is a matter before them relative to technicians employed in colleges awaiting decision, and unless it is resolved it can have, like the botheration existing between the Minister and the TUI, serious effects on examinations proposed for this year.
We in the Opposition are often accused by members on the other benches of an irresponsibility which was theirs when they were over here. Perhaps if the Fianna Fáil Opposition have a fault it is that they do not obstruct enough, that they misinterpret their role as being one of complementing the Government rather than opposing them. I do not share the view that calls upon an Opposition irresponsibly to attack the Government. I do not see that as being the role of a true Opposition. I see the role of the Opposition as indicating to the Government how they can resolve certain problems, irrespective of whether it was they or anybody else who created them. In respect of the matters to which I have referred these botherations are the creation of the Government. I have not dwelt on that. I am indicating how they can be resolved and I am giving the Minister for Labour the opportunity in this area, which he controls exclusively, to indicate to us the sincerity of his interpretation of his office, giving him an opportunity of leaving aside all the other alleged pseudo-problems which he has, indicating precisely how, in respect of the school leavers of this year and of their prospects of employment, he is the person who can resolve the impasse which exists. Unless he does it, I will hold him responsible for the ensuing botherations which have been exemplified by previous speakers which inevitably must ensue.
I am now calling on Deputy G. Fitzgerald.
I will hold him responsible in respect of that area for the inevitable frustrations and whatever course they may take, and time alone will tell that.
Deputy G. Fitzgerald, concluding.
Last night I spelled out in some detail the reasons why we submitted this motion to this House and the timing of such a motion. I am sorry that even our Press today did not carry the reasons behind such a motion. I regard that as lack of appreciation, by a very important group of people, of this most serious problem facing our established democratic State today.
Many points have been made on it. The contributions of Deputy Moore, Deputy Dowling and Deputy Tunney from this side of the House were indicative of their appreciation and concern for the situation that exists. I am sorry I cannot say the same for the benches opposite. I want to pay this tribute to the Parliamentary Secretary who spoke this evening. His was a concerned contribution, one that obviously showed an appreciation of the problem. I have no doubt the task imposed on him this evening was not a welcome one, because obviously he realised the failure of the Government to take the requisite steps, and that he would dearly love to walk into the division lobbies in a few minutes from now with this side of the House. It is a further indication that no backbencher in those two parties offered any contribution. May I say that the contribution from the Minister for Labour yesterday evening shied away from the subject, the problem. He gave us a lecture on economics as he knows them, but could I ask the Minister for Labour or the people would they have any regard any longer for his opinion of an economic situation in which he has contributed to its ruination?
I will again spell out a few points that I made last night and before doing so say that our young persons' unemployment problem is a very serious one. It is not enough for any Minister to say that we always had a problem of school leavers. Of course we had, but our problem now is that we have no opportunities for huge numbers of 1975 school leavers and indeed of school leavers of two months' time. I spelled out some months ago the overall unemployment situation and suggested that the Minister and the Government would set up a body, an action committee, not a commission—I do not want commissions or reports. I want positive action—consisting of Ministers, various agencies such as IDA, Fóir Teoranta, the banking and financial institutions, trade unions, of course, and the employers' organisations and representatives of the unemployed.
I appeal to them to consider that suggestion and to include people concerned about and connected with young persons. A very eminent career guidance counsellor here has spoken on this problem on many occasions in the last two years. I do not always agree with his utterances —particularly with his most recent one—but that is beside the point. The important thing is that he has an appreciation and awareness of the situation. In my opinion he would have something to contribute.
This is a national emergency and there should be no mistake about that. The highest memorial in the graveyard to the failure of the National Coalition when they leave office would be their failure to realise the harm they are doing and the disillusionment they are causing among our young people. We have more people in the 15 to 25 age group than any other EEC country. A tired, worn and defeated Minister for Labour last night tried to twist what happened in the sixties but I quoted for him, during my contribution on the Finance Bill, the views of an independent person regarding the sixties. The people in the 15 to 25 age group were reared in homes that had become accustomed to a decent standard of living, thanks to good government that allowed our economy to prosper in the sixties. Those young people became accustomed to an affluent society, something which was missing in the early years of this State. What are they facing now? They have a number of alternatives. A small number of them can join the dole queues—no girls, of course. Others can emigrate but to where? There are no opportunities for them near home.
There is a serious danger that those young people will be driven to do things we do not want to see them doing, engaging in vandalism and crime, taking drink and drugs. If they are driven to that it will be because of the frustration they experienced in their efforts to obtain employment. They are also frustrated because they cannot see the Establishment giving them leadership in a positive direction. There are areas where they can be employed. Last night I mentioned a scheme in Navan, the constituency of the Parliamentary Secretary. In Navan vocational school steps are being taken which tie up with the suggestion I made last night about a transitional year. That transitional year for young persons could be used to train them to compete for employment against the huge numbers of well-qualified people who are now forming our dole queues. The Parliamentary Secretary spoke about robbing Peter to pay Paul but the Government, to their eternal damnation, have only introduced one scheme to help the unemployed, unemployment benefit or assistance. That is welcome in the case of those who are genuinely unemployed but we are a work force society, our people prefer to work. Our young persons have tremendous goodwill and only need leadership. They need to be shown a way to occupy themselves.
I left school during a period of Coalition Government and at a time when jobs were very scarce. I spent a long time seeking employment. Later, like other young people of my generation, I succeeded in getting employment at home, in spite of what the Minister for Labour said last night. Many of my generation set up their own small businesses and prospered because there was a climate for them to do it. In expanding they gave employment to others, but this Government look upon such people as speculators. They look upon them as people who should be knocked and feel they should not be allowed to make any profit. Our school leaving situation, and the problem of unemployment, is not caused by world recession or by increased oil prices. It is caused because the Government deliberately set out to attack the person with initiative, the person with enterprise and the person who was making a success of business and giving employment.
Another example of the wrong the Government are doing is the fact that they have decided to tax the co-operative movement. There was no greater area of social employment because of its scattered nature throughout rural villages and towns than the co-operative movement. Many young people were given temporary employment by these co-operatives. It is necessary that young people be given temporary employment so that they do not dis-improve. For a young person to be left without employment for three months can be very damaging. If those young people see nothing facing them but further unemployment and lack of opportunity, they become frustrated. I know of young people who went for 27 interviews to different organisations and failed at the end. In the traditional areas for employment—nursing, banks, the civil service and local authorities—there are fewer opportunities and a greater number of applicants.
We need Ministers with courage to face this problem. Unless they are prepared to take positive steps to tackle it these young people will become disillusioned with the Establishment, and God knows what the future will hold for them. I appreciate the concern shown by the Parliamentary Secretary. It is different to what we experienced last night when there was not even one Member on the Government benches for the commencement of the debate on this motion. In fact, we had to wait four minutes for a Government representative to arrive. Statistics should have been produced but, as Deputy Dowling said, it is too late for statistics now. We must have action. Nobody can deny the truth of our motion in which we are calling on the House to deplore the failure of the Government to take positive steps to provide employment opportunities for our young people. Whether or not the motion is carried makes no difference. Posterity will prove us right that such was the case. It will be the highest memorial to this Coalition in the graveyard when that graveyard is entered in the not too distant future.
Question put.
The Dáil divided: Tá, 55; Níl, 61.
Tá
- Allen, Lorcan.
- Andrews, David.
- Barrett, Sylvester.
- Brady, Philip A.
- Brennan, Joseph.
- Breslin, Cormac.
- Briscoe, Ben.
- Brosnan, Seán.
- Browne, Seán.
- Brugha, Ruairí.
- Burke, Raphael P.
- Callanan, John.
- Calleary, Seán.
- Carter, Frank.
- Colley, George.
- Gogan, Richard P.
- Healy, Augustine A.
- Hussey, Thomas.
- Kenneally, William.
- Kitt, Michael P.
- Lalor, Patrick J.
- Leonard, James.
- Loughnane, William.
- Lynch, Celia.
- Lynch, Jack.
- McEllistrim, Thomas.
- MacSharry, Ray.
- Moore, Seán.
- Collins, Gerard.
- Connolly, Gerard.
- Crinion, Brendan.
- Cronin, Jerry.
- Daly, Brendan.
- Davern, Noel.
- Dowling, Joe.
- Fahey, Jackie.
- Farrell, Joseph.
- Fitzgerald, Gene.
- Fitzpatrick, Tom (Dublin Central).
- French, Seán.
- Gallagher, Denis.
- Geoghegan-Quinn, Máire.
- Gibbons, Hugh.
- Murphy, Ciarán.
- Noonan, Michael.
- O'Connor, Timothy.
- O'Kennedy, Michael.
- O'Leary, John.
- O'Malley, Desmond.
- Power, Patrick.
- Smith, Patrick.
- Timmons, Eugene.
- Tunney, Jim.
- Walsh, Seán.
- Wilson, John P.
Níl
- Barry, Peter.
- Barry, Richard.
- Begley, Michael.
- Belton, Luke.
- Belton, Paddy.
- Bermingham, Joseph.
- Bruton, John.
- Burke, Dick.
- Burke, Joan T.
- Byrne, Hugh.
- Clinton, Mark A.
- Cluskey, Frank.
- Conlan, John F.
- Coogan, Fintan.
- Cooney, Patrick M.
- Corish, Brendan.
- Cosgrave, Liam.
- Costello, Declan.
- Coughlan, Stephen.
- Creed, Donal.
- Crotty, Kieran.
- Cruise-O'Brien, Conor.
- Desmond, Eileen.
- Dockrell, Henry P.
- Dockrell, Maurice.
- Donnellan, John.
- Enright, Thomas.
- Esmonde, John G.
- Finn, Martin.
- Fitzpatrick, Tom (Cavan).
- Flanagan, Oliver J.
- Gilhawley, Eugene.
- Griffin, Brendan.
- Harte, Patrick D.
- Hegarty, Patrick.
- Hogan O'Higgins, Brigid.
- Jones, Denis F.
- Keating, Justin.
- Kenny, Enda.
- Kyne, Thomas A.
- L'Estrange, Gerald.
- Lynch, Gerard.
- McLaughlin, Joseph.
- Malone, Patrick.
- Murphy, Michael P.
- O'Brien, Fergus.
- O'Connell, John.
- O'Donnell, Tom.
- O'Leary, Michael.
- O'Sullivan, John L.
- Pattison, Seamus.
- Reynolds, Patrick J.
- Ryan, John J.
- Ryan, Richie.
- Spring, Dan.
- Staunton, Myles.
- Taylor, Frank.
- Timmins, Godfrey.
- Toal, Brendan.
- Tully, James.
- White, James.
Question declared lost.
Tá: Deputies Browne and Lalor; Níl: Deputies Begley and Mrs. Desmond.