Young people with disabilities in Ireland
are being discriminated against when it comes to accessing a European fund for
unemployed young people. That’s the claim being made by the Independent MEP
Marian Harkin. She says the current Youth Guarantee Scheme prevents people with
disabilities from applying for it because they’re not on the live register but
on other welfare registration payment systems. Marian Harkin says she’s made a
formal complaint to the European Commission to get the Government to change the
rules. 

Dur: 00:24

Background

The idea of the Youth guarantee scheme is to provide young people under the age of 25 with a good quality offer
of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within a
short time of becoming unemployed.

The Fine Gael MEP Deirdre Clune says European
victims of the so-called Dieselgate scandal should get compensation from Volkswagon.
Last year the US Environmental Protection Agency found that Volkswagon had
fitted a “defeat device” in many of its diesel cars sold in the US. The device effectively
cheated results of nitrogen oxide emissions tests. Deirdre Clune, who is on the
European Parliament’s Transport Committee, says that, while thousands of people
in the US have been compensated by VW,  in Europe the company has taken a much
different approach.

Dur: 00:23 

The Independent MEP Marian Harkin is
calling for a slowing down of EU trade deals with major trading blocs such as
Canada, the US and the Mercosur group of South American countries. Ms Harkin
was speaking in the European Parliament where MEPs questioned the EU’s Trade
Commissioner on news that a beef deal had been withdrawn from trade
negotiations with the Mercosur states. However,
Marian Harkin is warning the EU needs to put the brakes on other major deals
such as the TTIP deal being negotiated between the EU and the US.

Dur: 00:38