Dublin South West Sinn Féin TD, Seán Crowe, has said that there were no new surprises in the recently released Eurostat figures, which show that the youth unemployment crisis continues to grow.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“Eurostat’s latest report on regional unemployment rates in the EU’s 27 Member States makes for grim reading, and unfortunately Ireland has higher rates than the European average on all indicators.

“The Eurostat figures suggest that levels of unemployment, long-term unemployment, and youth unemployment, are at their highest in Ireland in the border, midland, western regions, and urban centres that have been blighted by disadvantage.

“In almost three quarters of EU27 regions the unemployment rate for young people was at least twice that for total unemployment,” notes the EUROSTAT report, adding that “in almost one fifth of the regions, more than half of the unemployed had been out of work for at least a year.

“Irish youth unemployment stands at a whopping 30.4% and remains substantially higher than the European Union average of 22.9%. This is also doesn’t take into account the mass emigration of Irish youth to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America,

“Despite their constant hand wringing, this particular 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 an EU wide youth employment initiative.  In spite of this well publicised initiative, no new action has been taken for those who are unemployed, no new schemes, or the prospect a new pathway towards employment.

“There was some 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 comprehensive youth guarantee, state-wide as soon as possible.

“In the coming weeks, Sinn Féin will be bringing forward a report to the Oireachtas European Affairs Committee on the issue of a youth guarantee, with the aim of informing government policy of the strengths and weaknesses of similar schemes in other EU member states.

“This Government needs to act in a manner which reflects the scale of this crisis and act now.

“Young people cannot wait any longer.”

ENDS