One in four young people are now unemployed. At the start of 2010 the number of those unemployed under the age of 25 in the Twenty-Six Counties had reached 85,000, an increase of almost 150% in a year. Young men are worst affected, with one in three men under the age of 25 now being out of work.
Welfare payments for young people have been slashed and it is estimated that 60,000 people emigrated in the last year.
The government clearly has no strategy to keep young people in Ireland and use their skills to rebuild the economy.
Sinn Féin believes that if the government doesn’t act to tackle soaring youth unemployment, this will have huge implications for the economy and for society into the future.
canvassing on youth unemployment at the weekend
Sinn Féin’s proposals to deal with unemployment among young people include:
- A youth jobs fund to create 20,000 new jobs at a cost of €500 million;
- An individual plan for the long term prospects of every person under 25 who is on the live register;
- 2,000 places on a ‘One More Language Scheme’ to give the young unemployed a chance to learn an extra foreign language at a cost of €20million;
- 5,000 free ECDL advanced places at a cost of €25 million;
- 10,000 new CE places at a cost of €168 million;
- 1,000 places on conversion courses at third level to help graduates convert their skills to potential growth sectors at a cost of €15 million;
- 8 measures to treble the number of under 25’s who are self employed including a national entrepreneurship programme, access to credit and greater support for high potential start ups;
- Create a publicly owned green tech firm for Ireland and initiate a major drive to attract FDI in renewable energy at a cost of €100 million;
- Make Ireland a digital media leader through support for skills, infrastructure and entrepreneurship;
- A ‘National Development Scheme’ to employ people directly on public works projects employing 2,000 workers at a cost of approx €100 million;
