Youth Entrepreneurship Fund a key part of 2014 Action Plan for Jobs

I warmly welcome the inclusion of the Youth Entrepreneurship Fund in the Action Plan for Jobs 2014 and the overall focus on entrepreneurship to create further jobs.

Today’s announcement of the Action Plan for Jobs for 2014 contains 385 actions to be implemented across all Government Departments, including 26 actions in the section on entrepreneurship.

As part of these actions, an additional €3.5 million is being provided to support start-ups and expansions and to fund the Youth Entrepreneurship Fund. 

This new fund will be managed through the new Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs), a ‘first stop shop’ service for local start-ups and small businesses.

As Vice Chair of the Oireachtas Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Committee, I helped launch a cross-party report last year, Creating Policies that Work, that specifically recommended the setting up of a €1 million Youth Entrepreneurship Fund on a two-year trial basis.

I brought the Youth Entrepreneurship Fund proposal before the Labour Parliamentary Party who endorsed the proposal this time last year. It’s great news this has been carried forward and included in 2014 Government Action Plan.

Why set up this Fund?

Given that youth unemployment in Ireland is at 24%, a Youth Entrepreneurship Fund serving those under 25 is a signal to our young people that we believe in their talent and are willing to back them. 

Speaking at the Youth Guarantee launch in Digital Skills Academy last year

Those availing of the fund could also be given business mentoring supports as part of country-wide implementation of the Youth Guarantee scheme, which is another key measure in the 2014 Action Plan.  

Many young people have stated their difficulties in accessing start-up credit, due to their age and perceived lack of business experience. 

I was left in no doubt that these barriers are preventing business ideas being realised and potentially costing us jobs that we can ill afford to pass up.

Roll of Committee Work - Leads to Actions

Many of the key recommendations of the Creating Policies that Work, such as a Youth Guarantee; a Youth Entrepreneurship Fund, and the use of Social Clauses in public contracts, were included in the 2013 Action Plan and I am glad the Youth Entrepreneurship Fund and the Youth Guarantee will be rolled out and further expanded in the 2014 plan.

The whole-Government approach of the Action Plan for Jobs is working. 

It was also announced today that 61,000 jobs were created last year, meaning we’ve gone from a situation where 1600 jobs a week were being lost in 2012 to now where over 1200 jobs a week are being created. 

I will continue to work in my capacity as Vice Chair of the Oireachtas Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Committee to ensure we bring forward more ideas to help tackle unemployment in the country.

More information

You can read the full Action Plan for Jobs 2014 here. 

You can read my previous tatements on Youth Entrepreneurship & Action Plan for Jobs here and here.

"Just like my mam, I believe that Irish people are willing to open their hearts and accept change"

Last week in the Dáil, I raised the recent controversy about RTÉ and the reported €85,000 pay-out they made to several individuals following a discussion on The Saturday Night Show about what homophobia is.

As I spoke I thought about a conversation I had with my mam in the kitchen in Ballymun about 10 years ago. I had come out as being gay already at this stage and conversation turned to the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry.

I was a little taken aback with my mam’s attitude to gay marriage. While she had no issues with gay people, or my own identity, she was against same-sex marriage and it made her quite uncomfortable. At that time there weren’t even Civil Partnerships in Ireland, so I imagine her opinions were shared by a lot of people.

Do I think that made my mam a homophobe for thinking this way? Absolutely not!

My mam is a good example of the ‘decent folk’ that make up Irish society. She is the same loveable person that she was 10 years ago. Slowly, however, over time, her opinions have changed about the rights of gay people to marry. I put this down to her willingness to open her heart to what life presents her.

In the years that followed, Civil Partnerships were introduced for gay and lesbian people and I think they’ve changed a lot of people’s opinions on the rights of gay couples.

I have a great memory of all my family, including my mam, going to the Civil Partnership ceremony of my sister’s best friend a couple of years ago. It was a very happy occasion with friends and family celebrating a couple who had been together for well over a decade.

Over the last two weeks there has been a lot of public debate on the rights of gay people to marry in the same manner as straight couples. A lot of different things have been said. I believe this debate has been a good thing. I also think that over the last two weeks many people have come out in support for the right of gay and lesbian people to marry. 

In 2015, the Irish public will vote on a referendum on this issue. Just like my mam, I believe that Irish people are willing to open their hearts and accept change.

And I believe they will open up their hearts like they did this week and vote yes to extend equal rights to their sons and daughters, their brothers and sisters, friends and fellow citizens.  

This blog post appeared as an opinion piece in the The Irish Sun newspaper on Sunday 9th February.

Other media from last week:

You can send the end of my contribution in the Dáil chamber here:

 


I also spoke to Ryan Tubridy on his radio show on Friday reflecting on recent events - you can listen to my interview here as well. 

Facebook Should Fight Fire with Fire and Provide Free Responsible Drinking Ads on 'Neknomnination' Pages

Today I called on Facebook to provide free advertising space for USI's 'break the chain' campaign to stop neknominations on all its pages that include content about the drinking game.

Facebook has stated that it was powerless to remove videos of people participating in the drinking game in response to the tragic death of a young man at the weekend.

It is ironic that on their 10^th anniversary Facebook is not prepared to seize the initiative. To suggest that such a successful company can wash its hands of the phenomenom of neknomination is not credible.

Of course the company is not responsible for reckless drinking, but it does own the pages where the activity is promoted.

Facebook should fight fire with fire. It must be easy for this sophisticated advertising company to ensure that any user’s page which includes neknomination content also includes material promoting smarter behaviour.

Speaking at event in Digital Skills Academy last year

USI’s 'break the chain' campaign which makes a clear argument why neknominations should be rejected is the ideal initiative that should be promoted.

I suspect that at this stage most young people in Ireland agree that neknomination is a bad idea. But there are wider issues here about how social media interact with their users – whose presence makes them wealthy.

This is an issue I’ll be raising with the Internet Content Governance Task Force that Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte has established to review responsible behaviour online.