Youth Unemployment
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-19
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Alan Dillon (FG), Mayo

I disagree entirely with the suggestion that Government is not doing anything and is complacent on youth employment. We can see from the CSO's recent data that it has clearly identified a temporary demographic and seasonal effect, while there is also a surge in young people entering the labour force for the very first time. That is not a collapse in youth opportunity; it is, in one sense, supported through the creation by this Government, across many sectors, of job opportunities within engineering, green technology and construction. We have seen a huge number of new opportunities being created, even in 2025. We are also seeing that most of the recent increases in youth employment affect those without post-secondary qualifications. That is why we have, as a Government, invested in programmes such as Springboard+ and MicroCreds and expanded the apprenticeship network. As I said earlier, we have an ambitious programme to continue to invest in apprenticeships to ensure that every young person can transition from learning and earn the right skills to enter the workforce correctly.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-19