Jobs Committee report tackles issues of youth and long-term unemployment – English

Fine Gael Meath West TD and Chair of the Oireachtas Jobs Committee, Damien English TD, has welcomed the publication of the Committee’s report, ‘ Creating Policies that Work: Actions to Address Youth and Long-Term Unemployment’, which has recommended a range of measures to help young people and the long term unemployed get back to work. The report makes a specific recommendation that the Discovery Zone initiative, which started in Co. Meath, should be promoted as best practice.

“We are putting forward a set of recommendations aimed at tackling the very serious issues of youth and long-term unemployment. We want to provide realistic suggestions on how the Government can boost opportunities and help get people back to work. This includes establishing a Youth Guarantee, encouraging more young people to become entrepreneurs and increasing incentives for employers to take on the long-term unemployed.

“This report is the result of a body of work carried out by the Committee over the last year. We held a range of roundtable discussions with a wide range of organisations, as well as examining research produced by the Oireachtas Library and written submissions from stakeholders and interest groups.

“Youth Guarantees are in place in a number of other countries, such as the UK and New Zealand. Adopting a guarantee here would ensure a focus on youth-orientated policies. It means the Government would ensure that young people are either in education, training or work.

“We have also placed an emphasis on the need to encourage youth entrepreneurship, including the establishment of a Youth Entrepreneurship Fund of €1 million on a two-year trial basis. We could follow the approach taken by Portugal, where start-up aid is provided for small companies that create jobs.

“Among the other recommendations are; helping the unemployed cover the cost of going back to work; extending the MOMENTUM initiative which provides training courses; and pushing for the expansion of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund.  

“The report gives a particular nod to the Discovery Zone initiative, which started in Co. Meath. It helps out of work professionals to develop new business ideas and to use their skills to exploit business opportunities. We think this should be used as a model of best practice for other schemes aimed at reducing unemployment and delivering business benefits.

“There is no quick fix for our unemployment crisis. At least 250,000 jobs were lost in the last three years of Fianna Fáil’s time in power, so we have huge amount of ground to make up. However, 12,000 new jobs were created in the private sector last year, and we are determined to build on this progress through the range of initiatives and ideas set out in this report.”

ENDS