Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 October 2017
682. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will report on her Department's response to the report from the European Court of Auditors which described the youth guarantee scheme as falling short of expectations; her views on the fact that youth unemployment rates remained over double the national average in March 2017; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42853/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe report by the Court of Auditors relates to the overall implementation at the European Union level of the EU Recommendation on a Youth Guarantee, rather than making findings about individual Member States. The Court did, however, visit seven Member States, including Ireland, to assemble material for its assessment.
The report concludes that the, “Member States visited had made progress in implementing the Youth Guarantee and some results had been achieved”, but that, “the current situation - more than three years after the adoption of the Council Recommendation - falls short of the initial expectations raised at the launch of the Youth Guarantee”.
The European Commission, to which the Court’s report is directed in the first instance, has explicitly rejected this opinion of the Court. In its, “Reply of the Commission”, published with the Court’s report, the Commission:
“considers that the current results in Youth Guarantee implementation do not fall short of initial expectations. Whilst recognising that additional efforts are still needed to reach out to all young people, delivering quality and timely offers, the Commission underlines that the Youth Guarantee has led to positive results. In particular, as highlighted in the Commission Communication (COM/2016/646) ‘The Youth Guarantee and the Youth Employment Initiative three years on’, it has provided a strong impetus on structural reforms and policy innovation, areas which are outside of the scope of this report.”
For its part, Ireland made clear, in the implementation plan published in response to the Recommendation, that, “the deeply ingrained problem of youth unemployment cannot be solved with the flick of a switch”, and that achieving substantial reductions in youth unemployment represented a medium-term goal of economic and labour market policy.
At the time of the adoption of the implementation plan in December 2013, the seasonally adjusted rate of youth unemployment in Ireland was 25.6%, somewhat above the then EU average of 23.4%. Since then, youth unemployment here has been reduced to 14.8% in September 2017, significantly below the current EU figure of 18.9%.
Both in absolute terms and relative to the situation elsewhere in the EU, the improvement in the youth labour market has exceeded expectations in the period since 2013. The most recent trends suggest that further significant reductions in youth unemployment can be expected in the period ahead.
