Sir, – Senator Kathryn Reilly (Opinion, July 4th) made a number of incorrect assertions, baseless political charges and omissions which give a distorted picture of Government efforts to tackle this problem.
The Senator omitted to state that it was Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton who, under the Irish presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of this year, brokered the EU-wide agreement on the Youth Guarantee. The guarantee, once implemented from 2014 on, will assure young people between 18 and 25 a good quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship, a traineeship or work experience within four months of becoming unemployed.
Thanks to the priority which the Irish presidency attached to the youth unemployment issue, it has risen to the top of the European political agenda, as evidenced by the high-level Conference on Youth Employment held by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin this week, attended by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Ms Burton.
Furthermore, Ms Burton and German minister of labour and social affairs, Dr Ursula von der Leyen, have reached agreement in principle on a memorandum of understanding between Ireland and Germany on a range of youth employment measures to benefit both countries.
Ms Reilly suggested that just four of the 333 commitments in the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs relate to young people. In fact, young people are included in half of the major policy areas covered under the action plan, and many of its individual programmes and schemes will be of major benefit to young people.
Finally, Ms Reilly stated that the Department of Social Protection submitted its bid for funding for a Youth Guarantee pilot project in Ballymun only in June of this year, several months after the European Commission had invited applications. This is absolutely and verifiably untrue. The department submitted its application in October 2012, and the Commission indicated it would respond in due course. It did so yesterday – and confirmed that funding would be provided for Ballymun. – Yours, etc,
PAUL O’BRIEN,
Press Adviser to the
Minister for Social
Protection,
Store Street, Dublin 1.