Call to establish €1m fund to tackle youth employment

A young entrepreneurs’ fund of €1m and a job or training guarantee scheme are among the measures a cross-party committee want the Government to adopt in an attempt to tackle youth unemployment.

Almost one in three (30%) of under-25s in Ireland are unemployed — twice the national unemployment rate — and the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation said many were not in education or training either.

Fine Gael TD Damien English, the committee’s chairman, said: “It’s become clear to us as a committee that this whole area is a major concern. It’s an issue we really feel we have to focus in on.”