To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on youth unemployment in Northern Ireland. [16366]

At 9 January 1997, there were 17,130 unemployed young people, aged under 25, in Northern Ireland. That is a decrease of 3,594, or 17.3 per cent., in the past year. The decreases in unemployment are evident in all parts of the Province.

Does my hon. Friend agree that those figures are very good news for young people in Northern Ireland, and a tribute to the economic policies that have been pursued by the Government? Has not inward investment also played an important part in the decrease in unemployment?

Indeed it has, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point. It is also interesting to note that, in September 1996, employment was at the highest September figure ever. That also bodes well for the Province. The decrease reflects the fact that there has been much inward investment. The Government's economic policies have been good. Particularly by not signing up for the social chapter, we have managed to attract industry to Northern Ireland which otherwise would not have come.

On the basis that the devil will always find work for idle hands to do, will the Minister examine very carefully the strange imbalance between male and female unemployment rates in Northern Ireland, and confirm that those rates are mirrored in youth unemployment? What does he intend to do this summer to give work to young people to take them off the streets?

I will look into that, but I do not have an answer at the moment. I will ask my noble Friend Baroness Denton, and I will write to the hon. Gentleman. We are concerned about the marginalisation of young people in Northern Ireland, precisely because of the activities that the young unemployed can get up to. Unemployment is a priority in the Department of Education, and an interdepartmental working group is addressing the issue. I hope that it will report later this year.

Does the Minister agree that many unemployed youngsters are badly handicapped in the labour market by their appalling lack of educational qualifications? Is it not time for a radical reappraisal of the policy for targeting social needs funds? Those funds should be wholly directed to schools in deprived areas.

As I am sure the hon. Gentleman knows, we are directing money, through targeting social needs funds, to specific schools, and the results are shown in the substantial reduction in the number leaving schools without qualifications. The greatest improvement for the unemployed, young or old, in Northern Ireland would be for peace to be restored, so that the economy could grow and jobs be created.