Jenny Marra MSP
Speech in the Scottish Parliament debate
Youth Unemployment
14 June 2012
When Michael Moore, Iain Duncan Smith, John Swinney and Angela Constance went to Dundee in March to discuss ways to tackle unacceptably high levels of youth unemployment, I was encouraged that they might focus on Dundee.
Kezia Dugdale and I sat in Dundee College that morning and listened to the minister talking about youth unemployment.
She also took questions from young unemployed people and local businesses in Dundee.
At that point, I believed that we could try together to tackle rising youth unemployment in our city.
However, I was disappointed.
Three days after the SNP ministerial car had swept out of Dundee, it was announced that £9 million would be shared across Scotland to tackle youth unemployment, but not one penny would come to Dundee, which was the venue for the Scottish youth unemployment conference.
Angela Constance: Is Ms Marra aware of the methodology? This is the first time she has raised the issue with me. One stream of funding was targeted at six local authorities that have the most acute problems. That is not to say for one moment that Dundee, Fife, West Lothian and West Dunbartonshire do not have problems, but money was targeted to other areas on that occasion. As we proceed to the medium term with our strategy, Jenny Marra should welcome the fact that we have European social fund money with which we can move forward and ensure that other areas of Scotland will also benefit.
Jenny Marra: I will go back and look at the minister‟s methodology, because my understanding is that Dundee‟s youth unemployment rates are worse than those of three of the five areas at which she targeted that investment.
I am sure that she and I can correspond on that matter in the future.
The SNP came to Dundee with warm words and assurances, but did not regard the city‟s youth unemployment problem as being big enough to deserve investment.
Furthermore, when asked why Dundee‟s young people had been overlooked, a Scottish Government spokesperson replied that money had been earmarked for areas that have particular youth unemployment problems.
Let me tell the minister about the extent of youth unemployment in Dundee, so that next time she will not do us the disservice of sharing a platform with the Tories in Dundee and telling us how concerned she is, but will instead addresses the problem with hard investment.
In Dundee today, 1,705 16 to 24-year-olds are claiming unemployment benefit while Dundee has 674 modern apprenticeships, so it is clear that that number should be multiplied by three.
The Scottish Government's statistics show that during the past year the number of 16 to 24-year-olds in Dundee who have been claiming unemployment benefit for six months or more rose by a staggering 109 per cent, and the number who have been claiming for a year or more soared by 642 per cent.
I would like to think that the Scottish Government simply did not know the true extent of the problem in Dundee before its spokesperson told our young people that they are not a priority for the Government.
For too long, the Government has used its flagship policy on modern apprenticeships as an excuse for ignoring the problem.
The Government has claimed countless times that 25,000 modern apprenticeships have been created.
We now know, as a result of Kezia Dugdale‟s assiduous research, that the claim is spurious and that the reality is that the Government cannot even administer a modern apprenticeships scheme effectively, let alone transform apprenticeships into sustainable jobs for unemployed youngsters.
When I think of Dundee, I think of our potential. I think of our life sciences and technology sectors and our future as a renewables hub.
I think of our proud manufacturing history—NCR, Timex and Kestrel—I think of all the young people I meet who tell me that they desperately want to work, and I think of the young men and women who want to work in construction and engineering, who want to work with their hands and make things.
Some people stopped me in the street in Dundee last week to ask me when the renewables jobs will come.
So far, the Government has failed to deliver on those jobs, despite our city‟s promise.
The investment from Gamesa did not come to Dundee, and although it is almost six months to the day since the First Minister came to Dundee to sign a memorandum of understanding with Scottish and Southern Energy, we still wait to hear the outcome.
We still do not know how much our portion will be of the national renewables infrastructure fund or when it will come to Dundee.
Perhaps the Government will tell us today—or soon.
We owe it to Dundee‟s youngsters to give them every opportunity to meet the expectations that we teach them their hard work will allow them to achieve.
On behalf of our young people, I urge the Government to make youth employment an even higher priority.
