asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will extend the education opportunities scheme to all social welfare recipients.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Education Opportunities Scheme.
4.
The educational opportunites scheme is a pilot scheme which gives unemployed persons over 25 years of age the opportunity to attend a leaving certificate course run by their local VEC while at the same time being paid a weekly allowance equivalent to their unemployment payments. The scheme is operating in Limerick city and Tallaght, County Dublin, and there are three classes with 44 pupils in all.
The extension of the scheme on a nationwide basis and making it available to all social welfare recipients would have very significant implications in terms of costs, including physical resources and would have to be examined in the context of policy for adult education generally. It is my intention, however, to extend the existing scheme to other locations, in consultation with the Minister for Education as resources permit.
Has the Minister any details in his brief of the number of people who have applied for educational opportunities schemes such as this?
I have the number who applied for the schemes which were offered in Limerick, Tallaght and Letterkenny. The Letterkenny scheme did not go ahead because it was not possible to form a class in that case. The Limerick and Tallaght schemes went ahead. There were two classes formed in Limerick, with 23 and 15 participants and one class in Tallaght with 12 participants. The classes got off the ground. There were six drop-outs during the course and in Limerick three people got jobs, one person dropped out because of illness and one participant moved away. Generally the results were very good. I would be very anxious to see the scheme extended further. Of the original participants, 12 are no longer on the live register, nine of whom got jobs.
The Minister recently announced a scheme to allow for part-time work while drawing unemployment assistance. Here we have a situation where people who want to improve their employment prospects by going into education are not allowed to do so. Would the Minister not consider, for the coming school year starting in September, allowing social welfare recipients to, at least, draw part of their allowance if they go into part-time or full-time education, regardless of special classes being arranged for them?
I shall certainly consider that. I would be interested in looking into it very seriously. As the Deputy says, it differs from the educational opportunities scheme which is a question of forming classes for over 25s. He is suggesting now that people who are going to participate in a course to improve their opportunities for getting back into employment might be assisted. I shall look into the matter.
I support Deputy Mitchell's call for an extension of the education opportunities scheme. Because of the Minister's particular interest in this scheme I ask him to consider as a special case the Dublin north east area which is in need of such a scheme given its high rate of unemployment and the good burgeoning adult education schemes which exist there.
As I outlined in my reply, extension of the education opportunities scheme will depend on the resources of the Department of Education. I am very anxious that extra resources will be provided to establish courses in areas where they can be established. In regard to the point raised by Deputy Mitchell, let me say it would be a matter of letting individuals free to go where they can find suitable courses. Some other Deputies also raised that question with me recently and it is one which I am looking at.
That illustrates our haphazard approach to the public finances. On the one hand the Minister has agreed to look at my suggestion to extend the scope of the education opportunities scheme while, on the other hand the Minister for Education is closing down adult literacy schemes. Would the Minister not agree that persons who qualify for schemes of that sort which require the expending of no extra resources should immediately qualify for the education opportunities scheme?
The Deputy may be aware that I have made a number of grants available under the adult literacy scheme to increase the number of courses. At present I am examining the question of whether we should extend the scheme. We have just gone nationwide with the part time job allowance scheme and shortly I hope to announce an extension to the voluntary scheme and the education opportunities scheme.
Would the Minister accept that his positive reaction to Deputy Mitchell's suggestion, taken with the part time job scheme and the extension to the voluntary service scheme, are an indication that we are moving to a position where availability for work will no longer be the criterion for receiving assistance? Would the Minister indicate in what direction he intends moving? Is he going to bring forward another criterion or set of criteria for receiving assistance?
That is a separate matter.
With the general agreement of the House we are introducing a number of flexible options for the unemployed, particularly the long term unemployed. If it becomes necessary to alter the legislation I will be quite happy to come back into the House but these schemes are all fairly limited given the total number unemployed. As the controls are increased and more computerisation is introduced there will be an onus on us to ensure that the arrangements are flexible and we have the capacity to do that.
That is a load of baloney. People want to go on courses.