State to spend €200m on youth jobs guarantee

Ireland will spend €200 million on creating a youth guarantee on jobs and training over the next two years, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said following yesterday’s EU summit on youth employment.

Under the guarantee, no unemployed youth would be allowed to go longer than four months without a job offer or training.

Asked about reports that the four-month deadline might have to be extended because of insufficient funds and inadequate training capacity, Mr Kenny said: “The plan will be ready [next month] and we will live up to the four-month commitment. We are absolutely focused on this.”

The Taoiseach said that including European funding, approximately €200 million would be available over the next two years, of which about one-third would be contributed by Ireland itself.

José Manuel Barroso, the president of the EU Commission, had promised there would be no delay in making the EU money available.

Mr Kenny said Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton, who attended the summit with him, would present the plan. It would be discussed in the Dáil before the end of December “and we’ll proceed to implement it”.

Regarding Ireland’s pending decision on whether to apply for a post-bailout line of credit, Mr Kenny said he had briefed “at least eight of 10” of the 24 leaders at the summit, including German chancellor Angela Merkel. He said the Government would make its decision before December 15th. “The leaders were happy to be updated on that.”

In his speech in the Élysée Palace, Mr Kenny spoke more about the wonders of the digital economy than youth unemployment. “I’d like to emphasise the enormous potential of the digital economy,” he said, quoting an EU commission report saying it grew “at seven times the rate of the rest of the economy”.

Asked if the recent cut in the jobseeker’s allowance, from €188 to €100 a week for 25- year-olds and under, indicated a shortfall in funds for Ireland’s 65,000 unemployed youths, Ms Burton said training, education and in-work experience were “a much better investment”.