Jobs and agriculture top of the agenda at the FG Ard Fheis – McEntee

Fine Gael Meath East TD, Helen McEntee, has today (Monday) said job creation and agriculture were top of the agenda at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis over the weekend. In excess of 3,000 delegates attended the event at the RDS in Dublin. Deputy McEntee participated in a number of sessions, including the televised live session on jobs, and the panel on agriculture, both of which took place on Saturday.

“I took the opportunity to raise the issue of youth unemployment during the jobs session on Saturday afternoon. While Ireland’s youth unemployment rate has dropped by 8% from its peak, it still remains far too high. The Government’s economic plan has been focussed on stabilising the banks, reducing the deficit and helping to create jobs. This approach led to 61,000 new jobs being added last year. The Taoiseach has designated 2014 as ‘The Year for Jobs’ and I believe it is vital that we drive youth unemployment down further in the next 12 months.

“The implementation of the Youth Guarantee has the potential to have a considerable impact on the number of young people out of work. It aims to ensure that all young people between the age of 18 to 25 receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. Forty-six million euro is being provided across a number of Government Departments for Youth Guarantee-related measures, and in all the Government will spend more than €500 million this year on youth employment, education and training.

“We need to be innovative in how we address this issue. I am a member of the Youth European People’s Party, which has put forward a number of strong proposals on tackling youth unemployment, such as tax incentives for employers who take on younger people. The Minister for Jobs, Richard Bruton TD, has announced, as part of the Action Plan for Jobs 2014, a Youth Entrepreneurship Fund, to encourage young people to set up their own businesses.

“As part of the panel on agriculture at the Ard Fheis, I spoke about the importance of encouraging more young people to go into farming. While the quality of young farmers emerging from college is very high, unfortunately the quantity is not. The average age of a farmer is 54, and just 6% of our farmers are under 35. Farming is changing; the sector is becoming more innovative and technologically advanced, but we need to ensure that the younger generation is primed to take over. This means selling agriculture to young people and letting them know that the sector includes a number of strands with high growth potential, such as food science, horticulture and forestry. The Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney, has managed to secure extra funding for the support of young farmers, which should help to attract the next generation into the sector.

“Finally, I was delighted to take part in Young Fine Gael’s session at the Ard Fheis, which included contributions from Spun Out, Shout Out, and Fine Gael local election candidate, Kenneth Egan. The topics of alcohol use, drugs, sex and mental health were discussed. These issues are often interlinked, and indeed our attitudes to alcohol, drugs and sex can affect our mental health, and vice versa. The YFG session allowed for a very open and constructive discussion on all of these issues, and on the other pressures associated with being a young person in 21^st century Ireland.”

ENDS