23/05/2013

Call For 'Urgent Action' Following New Eurostat Figures

Sinn Féin youth affairs spokesperson, Senator Kathryn Reilly, has called for "urgent action" from Government following the publication of new Eurostat figures, which show that "the youth unemployment crisis continues".

Senator Reilly said: "Eurostat's latest report on regional unemployment rates makes for grim reading. Ireland is above the EU average on all indicators.

"Significantly, the levels of unemployment, long-term unemployment and youth unemployment are higher in the border, midland and western regions.

"Youth unemployment at 30.4% remains substantially higher than the EU average of 22.9%.

"Despite their rhetoric Government is just not doing enough to stem the tide of youth unemployment. It is now three months since the European Council agreed to launch a EU wide youth employment initiative. Despite this no action has yet been taken by the Irish government.

"There is talk of a pilot youth guarantee project in North Dublin. However given the scale of the crisis there is an urgent need to develop and roll out a youth guarantee state-wide as soon as possible.

"In the coming weeks, I will be bringing forward a report to the Oireachtas European Affairs Committee on the issue of a youth guarantee, the aim of which is to inform government policy of the strengths and weaknesses of similar schemes in other EU member states."

(CD/MH)


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