Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 June 2013
162. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Social Protection if the youth guarantee scheme will be considered in provisions for Budget 2014 (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31390/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraSecuring EU Council agreement for an EU Recommendation on a Youth Guarantee was one of the priorities of the Irish Presidency and this was secured during my chairing of the Council of European Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs (EPSCO).
The Recommendation is that Member States should:
Ensure that all young people under the age of 25 years receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within a period of four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education.
While Member States are encouraged to implement the Recommendation as soon as possible, it is recognised that implementation will need to be more gradual in countries with higher levels of youth unemployment and particularly severe budgetary problems. The government will now review the current range of youth employment and training policies in Ireland to assess what measures will need to be taken to commence the gradual implementation of the guarantee. This will include the identification of what would be the appropriate timescale for implementation in Ireland's current employment and budgetary circumstances. A plan for the implementation of the Recommendation will be developed before the end of 2013.
The scale and nature of any additional measures required for the gradual implementation of a guarantee at national level will depend on the trend in youth unemployment, and in particular the number of young people likely to experience periods of unemployment of more than four months under current policies. In this context, it is a welcome development that the official labour market figures published by the CSO recently indicated that the number of young unemployed in the first quarter of 2013, at 53,800, decreased by over 10,000 on the same time a year earlier. It is to be hoped that this is the beginning of a sustained downward movement in youth unemployment as the economy recovers. Even so, the implementation of a guarantee will, almost certainly, require an expansion in the range of opportunities currently on offer to young people in the form of further education and training, internships, subsidised private-sector recruitment, and supports for self-employment.
The additional costs involved in delivering the Youth Guarantee in Ireland are likely to be substantial. Issues will therefore arise as to how a guarantee is to be financed and over what period, given the fiscal constraints currently facing the country. In this context the additional funding available from the EU, to be allocated across qualifying member states is actually €3bn. The balance of €3bn is a reallocation of monies from within the European Social Fund. Although it is now proposed to frontload the provision of these funds the actual process by which they will be allocated to member states is is as yet unclear.
As part of the process of developing our own national implementation plan the costs of any measures involved arising in 2014 will be dealt with in the normal way through the 2014 Budget.
