2026-01-15

I welcome the opportunity to have this discussion with the Minister of State. You will often hear reference made to some person, group or entity being the "canary in the coalmine". I believe that young people, when it comes to unemployment, are that canary in the coalmine. Looking at the trend, the general unemployment rate increased from 4.5% in quarter 3 of 2024 to 5.3% in quarter 3 of 2025. When you delve down into that, that is where you find the canaries, if you will. For those aged 15 to 24, which is the group known as "youth", the unemployment rate stood at 14.1% in quarter 3 of 2025, which was an 11.5% increase on quarter 3 in 2024. That is almost three times higher than the national rate. Not only is the rate higher but the rate of increase is also higher. There are 54,800 unemployed people, 9,400 of whom are classified as young people. When we look at the trends, we see a number of things. The reason I put this Topical Issue down was because of talking to friends, family and people in my constituency. This Christmas was a very bittersweet one for many. Young people in families were having their last Christmas at home because they are going to Australia - the Minister of State will know this - Canada, Dubai and America, although fewer and fewer are going to America. They are going to places where they think they might be able to build a life or shelter from the housing crisis and perhaps come back when, under a different Government, there might be better options. I put down this Topical Issue because when I spoke to people, I was prompted to look at the statistics. The statistics bear out what I am saying, which is that while the general rate of unemployment is low, although the trend is going slowly upwards, for young people the trend is going upwards at a much faster rate. They are proportionately representing a larger group. Young people face a lot of challenges. They are already subject to subminimum rates of pay, which is something the Government could change by way of legislation, and are at the business end of the housing crisis. What is needed is specific research into those labour market conditions that are being faced by young people. It is only by conducting the research into those labour market conditions that the Government can get the accurate picture and from that come up with a strategy to address it. The Minister of State has heard it said, and it has been said to me by young people, that this generation of younger people coming through will be the first to face a worse standard of living than their parents. You can see it. People are not able to buy their own house. The average age at which people can afford to purchase a house has gone up almost to age 40. That was certainly not the case when I was younger. All of these factors point in the direction of a need for specific research and specific targeting for this group of people. They are not necessarily the same as the general population of unemployed persons, so they need that bespoke research and a targeted plan of action.

I am grateful to Deputy O'Reilly for raising this important issue. While I am taking it on behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, it is one I have a personal interest in. We spent many a day on this topic in the previous Dáil. As the Deputy will know, the programme for government sets out a strong enterprise and fiscal framework prioritising economic and employment growth, with a target of creating 300,000 extra jobs by 2030. I am pleased to report that Ireland's labour market continues to perform strongly with record employment of over 2.8 million people last year, rising participation and sustained growth. For clarity there are more people at work today in Ireland than the population of Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s. This reflects the resilience of the economy and the success of Government policies supporting job creation, fostering innovation and providing opportunities across sectors. Skills and talent are in high demand with near full employment and continued growth in ICT, pharmaceuticals, medtech, financial services and agrifood driven by both indigenous firms and foreign direct investment providing opportunities for young people to begin exciting careers. All the research in the past week from three or four different bodies showed that the Irish workforce and population is now either the fourth or second most educated workforce in the world. While unemployment edged up to 5% in December, it remains broadly consistent with full employment. As the Deputy rightly points out, the youth unemployment rate reached 14% in December at 50,700 persons, which is below the EU average of 15.2% and euro area average of 14.8%. As everyone would accept, I think it is not unusual for youth unemployment rates to be higher than those of older cohorts, due to a lack of relevant work experience among younger workers, skills mismatches or difficulties experienced moving between education and employment, with clear seasonal and demographic patterns. This is nothing new in that regard. However, many of these factors are temporary in nature. As young people widen their professional networks and gain broader work and life experience, their employment prospects improve. The Deputy raised an action plan. It is a valid point and anybody in this Chamber can work on these things. It does not need to be party political. As she will be aware, in May 2024, the then Minister, Heather Humphreys, and the Minister, Deputy Burke, launched the updated Pathways to Work Strategy, which included a number of initiatives to reduce youth unemployment and the employment and youth engagement charter, an initiative to support and inspire young jobseekers and other marginalised groups to build their knowledge, skills and experience to enhance their employability. The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment and its agencies will continue promoting employer awareness and encourage uptake of supports such as the expanded JobsPlus subsidy scheme and the work placement experience programme. The Department will continue to work closely with the Department of Social Protection to implement revised Pathways to Work actions and to develop the successor strategy, which will support jobseekers to find and maintain quality employment. The Deputy alluded to the anecdotal experiences of many families at Christmas, which I do not dispute. In my new role as Minister of State with responsibility for diaspora, I have spent the past seven months extensively engaging with the Irish abroad. Some have been abroad for generations and some only recently. There is this notion that people are fleeing Ireland because there are no jobs, which was certainly the case when I left university when we were in the grips of the financial crash. We need to knock that on the head. There is a great opportunity to emigrate and move abroad but when we look at the category of people who came back to Ireland last year, we see over 30,000 Irish people returning after an experience abroad. We talk about housing and destinations such as Canada and Australia. The biggest issues there are the affordability and availability of housing with average prices in rental terms in cities such as Melbourne, Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney all ahead of Dublin. It is important that we play fair. This is an issue. I am not denying it is an issue. It is an issue being experienced by other European partners. We have a strategy in place and we are more than happy to work with the Opposition to make sure that it is fit for purpose and that we listen to those canaries in the coalmine the Deputy alluded to.

The Minister of State said he thinks we would all agree that it is not unusual for youth employment rates to be higher than those of older cohorts. I respectfully disagree with him. Dr. Elish Kelly from the ESRI has described the youth unemployment rate as it currently stands as a worrying trend because when you look at that age profile the chances are that they have lower levels of education and attainment. They are more likely to be employed on temporary-type contracts and in more vulnerable sectors that are often the first to let people go when the economy takes a turn. The ESRI would challenge the Minister of State's view that it is not unusual. I am pointing it out to him simply because within the overall trend not only is it ahead of the general unemployment rate but it is rising at a faster rate. When I say the canaries in the coalmine that is what I mean. It is worth looking at that. The Minister of State will not find anyone on the Sinn Féin benches objecting to a body of work in that regard. He knows that we will work with him. The first thing that needs to happen is research into those labour market conditions. A job is one thing but a job that can sustain you and you can live on is very much another thing. The Minister of State knows what the rental rates are like. Notwithstanding the fact that they might be high in Melbourne, young people are still going there in large numbers. They are going in numbers that are bigger than have ever been seen before. I think the year before last, 22,000 visas were issued for Australia alone.

That is after five years of low numbers.

What we see as part of the trend within the general unemployment figures is something that should be concerning, and no more than that. I think it bears more examination and that piece of research into those labour market conditions and the factors driving that faster rate of increase would be useful.

Where we are in agreement is that the trend is the concern. Youth unemployment being ahead of general unemployment is something we can accept happens but the rate at the moment is a worry. I share that with the Deputy and it is important we clarify that. That is why the Government continues to monitor labour market conditions and the youth unemployment rate and several of our recent initiatives will be central to supporting the broader economy, not least our ambitious investment plans and the action plan on competitiveness and productivity the Department published last year. An interesting thing when I was in the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment was the work of the labour market activation committee, which brings together that Department and the Department of Social Protection to see where those gaps are. They are consistently working with stakeholders from civic society, the labour movement, industry and representative groups as well as those academics who look into this research, whether from the ESRI, the Nevin Institute or any other bodies of a similar nature. That is something constantly looked at by the Government as well as why there is a constant evolution of our enterprise strategy and why we say we need to create 300,000 extra jobs in the programme for Government. That is not simply to stand still or offset anything. It is just to move forward, which is so important. We look at the general economic trends across the European Union and in the United Kingdom. There is a serious worry there but Ireland, thankfully, has not been caught up in that. However, there are serious headwinds. One thing of particular focus is the fact that when we are creating 100 new jobs per week, these are new jobs and that they are generally tailored with the educational abilities of the next generation of Irish workers coming out at whether at second level or third level. Certainly, any trend that is slightly above normal requires investigation. The Government is committed to looking at that on an ongoing basis. If Sinn Féin wants to contribute to that research or have its own research, we are more than happy to work in tandem in the national interest.