Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Pamela Nash and Andrew Murrison

Wednesday 28th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Dr Andrew Murrison)]

The questions are timely because last week’s figures show that youth unemployment in Northern Ireland has fallen by 3.3 percentage points over the year, and is 175,000 lower than in May 2010. The Government’s long-term economic plan is promoting a sustainable economic recovery from the mess we inherited, and it is directly assisting young people into real jobs that have a future.

[Pamela Nash]

I welcome those youth unemployment figures. However, Northern Ireland’s youth unemployment figures remain significantly higher, at 19.2%, than in the rest of the UK. That has a big impact not only on those young people, but on the security of Northern Ireland. Why have the Government allowed this situation to persist, and what will they do to stop it?

[Dr Murrison]

The matter to which the hon. Lady refers is of course primarily the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive. I must observe, however, that unemployment among young people in Northern Ireland rose by 35% between May 1997 and May 2010; it has gone down by 3.3 percentage points in this year alone.