THE whole EU, and not just Ireland, needs special measures if the long term unemployed are to be reintegrated into the labour market, according to the Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald.
She told a seminar on unemployment organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in Dublin yesterday that it was vital for the new EU Treaty to include an employment chapter. This would ensure that the economic criteria being monitored in the approach to EMU would be matched by social considerations.
Ms Fitzgerald also told the conference that the number of young people leaving school before taking their Junior Certificate has been halved from 5,000 to 2,500 over the past four years. But she added that it would be much harder to target remaining school leavers. These posed a difficult challenge. Of the 2,500 youngsters involved 900 were from travellers' families. Most of these left school after their confirmation.
She said that new initiatives like Youthreach were aimed at preventing early schoolleavers facing a lifetime on the dole when they should be "on the threshold of hope in their lives".
The new Local Employment Service was also beginning to target successfully the unemployed, she said. So far, 7,500 people have been found jobs or training opportunities.
The Fianna Fail spokeswoman on enterprise and employment, Ms Mary O'Rourke, said there should be one Government minister responsible for tackling unemployment, instead of having the responsibility spread over eight Departments, as at present. The minister should be required to give weekly reports to the Cabinet on what progress was being made to tackle the problem.
The seminar was held by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and hosted by the European Commission in Dublin yesterday, to mark European Week of Action for Unemployment. The ICTU general secretary,