The Department continually monitors the operation of its welfare supports to ensure the provision of service which meets the changing needs of Irish society and the objectives set by the Government. To address the specific issues raised by the Deputy; the number of young people unemployed has fallen by 11,400 from 64,000 to 52,600 in the last year. Although youth unemployment has fallen, the rate remains high and the period of time young unemployed people are out of work for is a particular cause for concern. In this regard the Government, together with other governments around Europe, is committed to implementation of a Youth Guarantee to ensure that young people are supported and positioned to benefit from the recovery in employment. The Youth Guarantee will build on existing programmes and reserve places on existing programmes for young people who are already long-term unemployed, including the development of variants of these programmes/offers tailored specifically for young people. My colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Alan Kelly TD, has responsibility for housing and will shortly be publishing a Social Housing Strategy.
As part of Budget 2015, Government has announced significant capital investment of over €2.2 billion for social housing for the next three years. In 2015, over €800 million will be invested in a range of housing programmes which represents the first major investment in housing since 2009. An additional €10.5 million will be provided for accommodation and related services for homeless persons, increasing the annual expenditure for tackling homelessness to €55.5 million next year.
With regard to rent support, increasing housing supply and the reactivation of the construction activity is critical to restoring stability to the rental market.
I can assure the Deputy that officers administering rent supplement throughout the country have considerable experience in dealing with customers and make every effort to ensure that their accommodation needs are met including through the use of their discretionary statutory powers as necessary. In light of a particular concentration of the homelessness problem in the Dublin area, the Department has agreed a tenancy sustainment protocol with the Dublin local authorities and voluntary organisations so that families on rent supplement who are at risk of losing their accommodation can have more timely and appropriate interventions made on their behalf. Since the launch of this protocol in mid-June 2014, almost 140 families have had their rent supplement claims revised by the Department.
