The Supplementary Estimate may be discussed with the main Vote, the Supplementary to be moved later.
Estimates, 1982. - Vote 40: Labour.
I move:
That a sum not exceeding £71,291,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1982, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Labour, including certain services administered by that Office, and for payment of certain grants-in-aid.
Since the major financial provisions in the Department of Labour Estimate relate to services in the areas of employment and training I propose first to deal with the employment situation and to outline briefly the activities of my Department and their agencies which are aimed at improving the position. The effects of the international recession continue to be felt. Last year growth in our economy was only about 1 per cent, the same as in 1980. This low rate of growth is reflected in the unacceptably high unemployment situation.
It is worth bearing in mind, however, that rising unemployment is a problem which we share in common with most of our EEC partners and, in fact, the percentage increase in Ireland has been much lower than in some EEC member countries. Indeed the main preoccupation of the EEC Social Affairs Ministers in recent years has been the growing crisis in employment. In the Community, unemployment has continued to increase and has now reached 10.5 million representing 9.5 per cent of the civilian working population, which contrasts most unfavourably with some years ago. In 1977 the figure was approximately 6 million. I do believe, however, that we have weathered the worst of the recession and that the prospects for the economy are now improving. As the Minister for Finance has pointed out in his budget speech, the prospects for a modest improvement internationally are good. Despite the unfavourable climate for international investment obtaining in the past few years, the Industrial Development Authority have nevertheless continued to achieve increasing numbers of job approvals. Many of these jobs will be coming on stream this year. The Authority estimates that over 12,000 new jobs in IDA-backed firms came on stream last year. In addition the Minister for Finance announced an overall boost of £50 million to building activity which should have a fairly quick impact on the unemployment level.
The overall impact of the developments should be first to stabilise the level of unemployment and then to start reducing it. Employment will be a central element in the forthcoming national plan.
A new subhead in the Labour Vote under the description "Training and Employment of Young Persons including Youth Employment Agency" provides £41 million for advances under the Youth Employment Agency Act, 1981. £40 million of the £41 million is the estimated yield in 1982 from the youth employment levy of 1 per cent on incomes from April this year.
I want to emphasise my Government's full support for the work of the Youth Employment Agency and our wish that the agency should exert a major influence on the provision of greatly expanded employment and training services for young people. We also urge programme sponsors, existing and potential, to give full co-operation to the agency in their task.
The Government view with particular concern the problem of youth unemployment. We must protect our young people from the worst effects of the recession. They are in a particularly vulnerable position. The consequences of high levels of youth unemployment, both in terms of the demoralising effects on the individual and of the implications for society in general, cannot be stressed too much.
While much of the extra employment and training facilities should come from expansion of existing schemes, I see the agency playing a key role, not only in co-ordinating that expansion, but in encouraging the development of new schemes, so that a wide range of facilities is available to cater for all categories of unemployed young people. Of the £41 million in the Youth Employment Training Subhead, £32 million has already been allocated to existing services. This provision will involve a rise of at least one third over 1981 in the capacity of programmes designed for young people under the auspices of AnCO, CERT, National Manpower Service and Departments of Education and Environment. The remaining £9 million is available to the Youth Employment Agency for allocation and may be used for further expansion of existing services and the launching of new activities. The bulk of expenditure from this subhead is expected to qualify for aid from the European Social Fund.
In 1983 the Youth Employment Agency plan to make further substantial progress towards the creation of sufficient capacity to provide training and/or work experience for all young persons unemployed for six months. The 1983 income from the 1 per cent levy will be substantially higher than the 1982 figure of £40 million and will thus support a further major increase in scale of activities.
One of the youth employment schemes proposed for expansion is the work experience programme administered by the National Manpower Service. The programme is designed to give unemployed young people first-hand work experience over a range of different activities by placing them with employers in both the private and public sectors for a period lasting up to 26 weeks.
While on a programme, each young participant gets a tax free allowance and is not liable for social welfare contributions. This allowance has been increased from £20 to £30 per week and the possibility of further improvements is being considered.
Since the programme commenced in September 1978 up to the end of December 1981 a total of 17,776 young people have participated in it. The success of the programme may be gauged from the fact that over 80 per cent of these young people, succeeded in getting permanent jobs — this is a very significant figure — with up to half of those being retained by the firms which provided the work experience initially.
The 1982 allocation of £5.4 million covers participation in the programme of 7,000 young people, that is, an average of 3,500 per week which will be an increase of 40 per cent on 1981.
In his budget speech the Tánaiste announced certain improvements in the Employment Incentive Scheme which aids recruitment of additional workers. He indicated that we would jointly consider if further improvements could be devised. I am happy to be able to announce the following changes in the scheme: (a) the £20 per week premium for adults is increased to £30; (b) the £14 per week premium for young people is increased to £25; (c) there is a new premium of £45 per week for employees over 25 years of age and at least 26 weeks on the live register; (d) the maximum period for payment is increased from 24 weeks to 52 weeks.
In deciding on the new £45 premium we were concerned with the problems of the longer-term unemployed — those over 25 years of age and over six months on the live register — who represent about half of the total on the register. Every Member of the House will be aware of the trauma suffered by people in their late forties or early fifties who have become redundant and have difficulty in securing new employment. They are perhaps competing with people some years younger who, in the opinion of some employers, are more adaptable and suitable to employ. This move is needed and will assist adults over 25 years of age and who are over six months on the live register. They represent about half the total on the live register and encounter difficulties in securing employment. AnCO and CERT cater mostly for people under 25 years of age.
The establishment of the Youth Employment Agency means that particular attention will now be given to those under 25. Under the scheme at present about 60 per cent of those who qualify are under 25 years. The new premium is designed to help the more mature unemployed worker.
The scheme has also been simplified from the point of view of the employers who wish to claim. The increases in premium rates, the more than doubling of the maximum period of payment, and the simpler procedures should make the scheme much more attractive to employers.
It is proposed to make an additional sum of £4 million available to meet the cost of these improvements on top of the £2 million provided for in the original Estimate, and this is provided for in the Supplementary Estimate.
I now want to refer more specifically to the training activities of AnCO and CERT. In spite of recession and its adverse effects on employment, AnCO's commitment to industrial training has not diminished. This means that when the general economic situation improves, firms will be able to meet increased demand with a pool of well-trained staff and capitalise on the improved economic situation.
This year AnCO's total non-capital allocation from the Exchequer amounts to £28.44 million including £19.3 million from the Youth subhead, and when receipts from the European Social Fund are added AnCO's non-capital funds for the year will be in the order of £60 million.
AnCO aim to increase their throughput of trainees by about 30 per cent over its 1981 figures this year. This will mean that some 24,000 people are expected to benefit from the wide range of training courses which AnCO are offering in 1982. As might be expected, some three out of four of AnCO's trainees are under 25 years and about 10 per cent of its trainees will be trained on apprenticeship courses this year. The vast majority of trainees however, will follow adult training courses. Some 10,400 trainees will undergo these courses in AnCO's own centres while a further 6,600 will be trained by agencies in industry or education at AnCO's expense. The numbers to be trained by these external agencies for AnCO represent a growth of 50 per cent over those catered for in this way in 1981. AnCO also intend to provide additional training opportunities under their community youth training programme this year. Here, it is planned to train 3,400 trainees, i.e. some 60 per cent more than they trained last year.
Over and above these training activities AnCO also will train some 1,100 trainees in workshops established throughout the country to provide suitable training courses for severely disadvantaged persons, including travelling people and unemployed youths from the Dublin inner city.
AnCO's capital grant this year is £9.68 million. This sum, along with an ESF receipt of £2.6 million in respect of capital, will enable AnCO to proceed with the programme of expansion of training centre network and training capacity.
This year two new centres at Finglas — the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will be interested — and Cork will be completed, with trainee capacities of 400 and 700 respectively. Building work will continue on the new 400-capacity centres in Loughlinstown and Baldoyle. Work will also commence on new centres, one in Letterkenny and another in Limerick.
As with AnCO, the bulk of CERT's trainees are under 25 and hence the bulk of their Exchequer allocation is provided from the new youth subhead — £980,000, in addition to which there is the £240,000 provision not restricted to the training of young persons. With matching European Social Fund assistance, CERT will have a budget of some £2.4 million and this will enable CERT under their education, training and recruitment services in the hotel catering and tourism sector — to train some 2,000 young persons in formal long-term craft and management training courses and in addition some 5,000 hotel workers on short courses. Also CERT organise special bar and catering courses for unemployed persons — 224 participated in 1981.
A non-capital grant of £435,000 is provided in this year's Estimate for the Irish Management Institute. This will be supplemented by grants from the European Social Fund which will amount to approximately £375,000. While the IMI provides a comprehensive programme on management development, it has a particularly important contribution to make in identifying new areas of training and development for Irish managers and organising programmes for redundant managers in conjunction with AnCO. The Government in supporting IMI activities are anxious to see to it that industry itself contributes its fair share to training its personnel level. Helping to train the managers of small firms to achieve expansion and stability is an important need and it is heartening to note that two recent programmes in this area have led to significantly increased employment in the firms which have participated.
The effects of the recession are apparent from the number of vacancies notified to the National Manpower Service last year, which dropped for the second year in succession. In 1981 the vacancies notified to the service decreased by nearly 8 per cent. However, as a result of increasing efforts to fill vacancies on the part of the NMS, almost as many placements were made by the service last year as in 1980. There was an increase of almost 20 per cent in the number of job-seekers using the NMS last year.
Improvements continue to be made in our manpower information sources in order to facilitate the more effective planning of education and training programmes to meet the present and future needs of industry and commerce. From the beginning of last year the National Manpower Service have introduced significant improvements in the data compiled on their placement activities. The service continue to publish the Manpower Information Quarterly, which is a valuable source of labour market information.
The National Manpower Service will compile and maintain a youth employment register which will assist the Youth Employment Agency and their associate programme sponsors in the task of identifying unemployed persons under 25 years of age and addressing their problems in finding employment. The register should help towards identifying disadvantaged groups and facilitate the agency in directing resources to the potentially disadvantaged.
I might add that the local National Manpower Service offices and clinics are now provided at a wide range of strategic locations throughout the country. The placement staff has been significantly augmented in recent years and training and back-up facilities have been continually improved, including the provision of more specialist occupational guidance officers. The service is now in a position to provide a professional and efficient service to both job seekers and employers. Of course, the co-operation of those concerned is required. I welcome all suggestions for further improvements.
The resettlement assistance scheme has played an important role in attracting key workers, that is, those with skills in short supply here who have been mainly Irish emigrants to come from abroad to take up employment at home. This helps to generate further employment opportunities for other less skilled workers. In 1981 a total of 191 key workers resettled here from outside the country with assistance under the scheme. I have decided that for the immediate future the benefits of the scheme will be confined to key workers and teachers of conversion courses and other specialised courses coming from abroad.
The Manpower Consultative Committee have continued to advise on the role of the manpower policy in economic and social development. The committee have examined the extent of shortages of highly qualified, skilled and semi-skilled personnel, including the possible effects of micro-electronics on the level and nature of employment. They have also looked at other labour market questions such as attitudes to industrial employment, worksharing, the problems of the long-term unemployed, the allocation of resources between various manpower programmes and the special manpower problems of small firms. I am glad to be able to say that courses mounted, mainly in engineering and computer disciplines, have contributed or are contributing to the elimination of imbalances between supply and demand of skilled manpower.
Finally, in relation to employment issues I want to refer to the employment of disabled persons. The 3 per cent employment quota to provide disabled persons with increased employment opportunities in the public service continues to be part of Government policy. I am anxious that the target will be achieved as quickly as possible. Generally speaking, all civil service employment is now open to disabled persons. In 1981 about 175 persons were recruited into the civil service as a result of special recruitment programmes. These special programmes will continue to be a part of general recruitment policy. Health boards, local authorities and State bodies have taken positive steps to increase their intake of disabled persons despite the difficult employment situation.
I and all Deputies should continue to remind the private sector of the importance of assisting and enabling the disabled to enter the employment arena. Many companies have been conscious of the need in the past. I encourage those who have not seen the necessity for it to help in this way.
Debate adjourned.