NW youth joblessnessvisit wasn’t a priority

Mr Callan, who was elected to the new Council in May, wrote to the Minister just over a year ago, stating: “As the Minister will be aware Limavady has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in Northern Ireland and we would be keen to have him down to tackle this problem.”

He invited the Minister to visit the Roe Valley Education Forum (RVEF) and Town Hall, but in a draft letter dated September 2013, Dr Farry’s Private Secretary wrote to Mr Callan explaining “existing diary commitments” prevented the Minister visiting Limavady.

This may have been true but the briefing note also recommended that the Minister “decline invitation - not a priority call on Minister’s time.”

Mr Callan, who himself has had direct experience of youth unemployment and at the time was claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA), said the issue should be the highest priority for Government.

“In the past ten years we’ve been hit hard,” said Mr Callan.

The Limavady area, he pointed out, hasn’t recovered from the devastating closure of Seagate’s Limavady plant in 2008 and has recently been rocked by further closures such as that at KPL.

“That’s one of the things I was trying to push with the Minister,” he said. “We have a problem with skills, there are a lot of people who are being left behind.

“I am quite lucky in that I managed to go and find employment, but I had been in a position where I couldn’t get work for a couple of months.”

Mr Callan, however, was forced to leave the North West to find work.

As a politician with direct experience of the social security system, Mr Callan can relate to the situation of many of his fellow citizens in the North West.

And although a political cousin of the Conservative Party he has a nuanced view of the ongoing reform of the social security system.

“I believe everyone wants to get people into jobs and apprenticeships but different people and different regions have different needs.

“In the North West, all of these young people want to get jobs, but they are not there.

“I think, in terms of a cap on welfare, everyone is agreed that someone on welfare shouldn’t have a higher income than someone who is working. But we have to be careful about how it is managed.”