Unemployment: Young People Debate
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Lord Barnett
Main Page: Lord Barnett (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Barnett's debates with the Department for Work and Pensions
(11 years, 5 months ago)
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Lord Freud
My Lords, clearly there are various initiatives. Some €6 billion across Europe is not a huge amount, and we are spending a great deal on our youth unemployment issues with the youth contract. If it emerges out of these meetings that one of the aspects of the European scheme is to encourage SMEs to take on youngsters by offering loans, clearly that is something that we will look at.
Lord Barnett
My Lords, does the noble Lord accept that talking to others might be helpful, but that generally they are pretty useless, especially in summits? Will he also accept that 1% growth at best over the coming years will be no way to help to increase employment among young people or anybody else?
Lord Freud
My Lords, perhaps I should not comment on the uselessness or otherwise of summits.
One of the most interesting things about this current recession, or slowdown in growth—