May 30, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons receiving one parent family payment by county in 2012.

Reply from Minister Joan Burton: There were 87,918 persons in receipt of a one-parent family payment at the 31st of December 2012. I attach a tabular statement detailing the breakdown of this number on a county by county basis.

May 30, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Social Protection her strategy to tackle long-term youth employment.

Reply from Minister Joan Burton: The official labour market figures published by the CSO indicated that the number of young unemployed at the end of 2012 was 59,000, of whom 27,300 were long-term (over one year) unemployed. The number of young long term unemployed represented a fall of 8,300 on the  figure of 35,600 at the end of 2011.

In the first instance, the Government’s primary strategy to tackle all forms of unemployment is to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth. Past experience suggests that youth unemployment, which tends to rise relatively rapidly in a downturn, can be expected to fall relatively rapidly during the recovery.

The Government is also implementing a number of programmes to assist young unemployed persons and keep young jobseekers close to the labour market. There are five main approaches being taken to tackle youth unemployment: education, training, job search assistance/guidance, work experience, and encouraging job creation. These actions range across a number of Departments and Agencies and include:

May 30, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide details of the number of persons who have entered the JobBridge national internship scheme in each of the past three years.

Reply from Minister Joan Burton: JobBridge, the National Internship Scheme, came into operation on 1st July, 2011.  The Scheme has made very significant progress in a relatively short period of time. I wish to advise the Deputy that 3,748 internships had commenced as at year end 2011. An additional 9,725 internships commenced in 2012.  An additional 4,136 internships have commenced so far in 2013. In total 17,609 internships have commenced to-date.

May 29, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Education and Skills, further to Parliamentary Question No. 231 of 5 March 2013, the progress that has been made by the new Quality and Qualifications Ireland to finally enable aspirant providers to apply for FETAC level accreditation; and when new applications will be accepted.

Reply from Minister Ruairí Quinn: I can inform the Deputy that, since his previous question on this issue, QQI have published a number of Green Papers on various policy areas which are available on the QQI website, dealing with subjects such as Awards and Standards, Certification, Access to Programme Accreditation, Recognition of Prior Learning and Quality Assurance. The purpose of these Green Papers is to inform the Comprehensive Policy Development Programme which QQI is undertaking with all of its stakeholders. Consultation events held by QQI in Dublin on 20 May and Cork on 28 May were attended by approximately 500 stakeholders and will inform the development of policy.

Following the receipt of submissions from interested parties over the summer months, new policies will be introduced in September to enable those providers who do not currently have a relationship with QQI to have access to external quality assurance and awards. 

It should be noted that while QQI has not been accepting new applications for recognition while these policies are being developed, it has been liaising with the providers concerned. In March 2013, QQI issued a questionnaire to 105 such providers and it continues to issue the questionnaire to potential applicants. The purpose of the questionnaire is to gather information on the providers and will assist when the provider application process reopens.

May 29, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of decisions handed down by the European Court of Human Rights specifically referring to rulings of the Irish Supreme Court since joining the European Union; and the specific regulatory or legislative action taken by Ireland as a result of each decision.

Reply from Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore: I have understood the Deputy’s question to relate to judgments and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights concerning Ireland. The European Court of Human Rights issues judgments and decisions relating to the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court and Convention operate within the framework of the Council of Europe rather than the European Union, but it is hoped that the EU will shortly accede to the Convention. Ireland signed the Convention on 4 November 1950 and ratified it on 25 February 1953.

I have annexed a list of the 45 judgments and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights which refer to rulings of the Irish Supreme Court. In 20 of these cases, the Court did not find a violation of the Convention and 7 others were settled.

May 29, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will provide the up to date crime figures for burglary, assault and vehicle related theft; and if he will provide the figures for the same categories in 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010.

Reply from Minister Alan Shatter: The Garda Síochána Act 2005 makes provision for the compilation and publication of crime statistics by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), as the national statistical agency, and the CSO has established a dedicated unit for this purpose.

I have asked the CSO to provide statistics directly to the Deputy.

Statistics for years prior to 2003 are available in the relevant Annual Reports of An Garda Síochána, copies of which are available in the Oireachtas library.

May 29, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of legal separations and divorces granted in each of the past five years.

Reply from Minister Alan Shatter: The Deputy will be aware that, under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service and I have no role in the matter.  Section 4(3) of the 1998 Act provides that the Courts Service is independent in the performance of its functions, which includes the provision of statistics.

However, in order to be of assistance, I have had enquiries made with the Courts Service and the information requested by the Deputy is set out in the table above.

May 29, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the amount of money being set aside to fund commemorations of World War 1, the War of Independence, the 1916 Easter Rising and the Civil War.

Reply from Minister for Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan: The commemorative programme embraces the totality of our history in the years from the 3rd Home Rule Bill to the emergence of the Irish State. 

Proceeding on the centenary timeline, the series of historic events will be addressed in a comprehensive, authentic and inclusive way oriented towards enhanced understanding and public participation. 

The capital and current needs of the commemorative programme to date have been met from within the approved allocations of several Departments and Offices. Funding arrangements are addressed on an individual basis for each project brought forward in the context of the commemorative programme.

Answered on May 28, 2013 
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Education and Skills the additional measures he 
proposes in order to increase the number of under-25-year-olds participating in vocational and technical education courses.

Deputy Deasy asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of under-25-year-olds 
enrolled in vocational and technical education courses for each of the past five years.

Replies from Minister of State, Ciarán Cannon: (I propose to take questions 296 and 297 together.) There is a strong focus on under 25 year olds in education and training programmes in my Department and support for these progammes is being maintained despite the current economic difficulties.

My Department funds the provision of over 430,000 part-time and full-time places across the further and higher education and training sectors, all of which are open to young people under 25 years of age.

This provision includes the recently developed and flexible re-skilling opportunities specifically for unemployed people in areas of emerging skills needs under Momentum initiatives.  The introduction of the MOMENTUM programme will have a specific impact on young unemployed people. It is to provide a 
range of quality, relevant education and training interventions for up to 6,500 individuals who are long-term unemployed. Training will be provided within the context of four themes all of which are open to under 25 year olds. One of these themes will focus on the specific needs of people under 25 and 800 places are being made available specifically for this.

For early school leavers, my Department funds 6,000 places under the Youthreach programme. The programme provides participants with two years integrated education, training and work experience. which facilitates early school leavers with opportunities to acquire certification and progress to further education, training or employment.

A weekly training allowance is paid to learners on some further education and training programmes. Learners who are under 25 will be paid an allowance of €160 per week, which is higher than the Jobseekers Allowance rates of €100 for those aged 18 to 21 and €144 for those aged 22 to 24.

The Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) scheme funded by the Department of Social Protection provides income maintenance for unemployed people returning to further and higher education. Latest figures show over 6,700 young people under 25 years of age are in receipt of the BTEA, 56% of whom are second level and 44% third level.

Statistics on the number of under 25s enrolled in further education and training programmes for each of the past five years is being collated at present and will be forwarded separately to the Deputy.

Answered on May 28, 2013
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in relation to his Department’s monitoring of the South-East Employment Action Plan, the number of ideas have been funded in Waterford since its launch in January 2012; the amount of funding for Waterford ideas that have been awarded to-date.

Reply from Minister Richard Bruton: The South East Employment Action Plan has a number of recommendations which the relevant agencies and stakeholders are charged with implementing. The following are examples of agency funding provided to individuals or companies in Waterford and in the South East since January 2012 to develop new business ideas.

Enterprise Ireland’s New Frontiers Entrepreneur Development Programme is a rapid incubation programme designed to provide hands-on support and management development for entrepreneurs who wish to start their own business.

Twenty promoters were accepted on to the 2012 programmes run in Waterford IT and Carlow IT.  All were approved a €15,000 scholarship from Enterprise Ireland to develop business ideas which can be spun out as knowledge based companies to provide jobs and export sales. Graduates are expected to go on to set up new businesses in the South East following the programme.  

Enterprise Ireland launched a pilot Competitive Feasibility Fund for new start-ups in the South East in January 2012. Over 40 applications were received with 14 high quality projects being approved for funding. The total fund was approximately €200,000. To date, one of the projects has been approved High Potential Start Up funding. Enterprise Ireland continues to work with innovative start-up companies at all stages of development and growth within the region.

Since 2007, Enterprise Ireland has approved a total of 707 Innovation Vouchers to companies in the South East with 287 approved to Waterford based companies (as of March 2013). Waterford has the fourth highest number of approved vouchers since 2007.

In addition to the above, the Waterford County and the Waterford City Enterprise Boards have both continued to use the funding available under the European Globalisation Fund and from my Department to provide supports for micro-enterprises within the County. From the 1st January 2012 to date, the two CEBs have funded 51 projects in the amount of €865,270 from the funding allocated by my Department, supporting the creation of 98 jobs, and funded a further 6 other projects in the amount of €110,462 with the financial support provided by the European Globalisation Fund. 

Work is on-going on the implementation of the South-East Employment Action Plan recommendations, with agencies and stakeholders working together to maximise benefits for the region. The South East Forum, established to oversee the implementation of the Action Plan, and which I met most recently in March this year, will continue to examine ways that would lead to job creation and investment opportunities in the South East.