The House will now hear one minute statements on matters appropriate to the Minister for Labour and the Minister for Energy.
Adjournment Debate. - Labour and Energy Matters.
I thank you for the opportunity to raise the embargo on social employment schemes. The social employment schemes have been a great success and have been availed of extensively by many voluntary organisations, including parish councils, tidy town committees, development bodies, local authorities, co-ops and even State bodies. Excellent schemes, both environmental and social, of tremendous benefit have been carried out. Many people who were unemployed for long periods jumped at the opportunity afforded by the social employment schemes.
Many organisations throughout the country have planned imaginative and worthwhile schemes but cannot begin due to the embargo on all new schemes. The position seems to be that no new approvals are being granted and, furthermore, that schemes approved are not allowed to commence. I know of instances where all arrangements were made to commence work, workers were notified, interviewed and dates arranged. They are now being told that they may not proceed.
I am asking the Minister to intervene and have this embargo lifted so that many bodies throughout the country can commence work on what will be schemes of great benefit in their own area and to the environment in general. I wish to thank the Minister for his presence in the House to reply this evening.
I would like to refer to the external courses being run by FÁS. I stress that I am talking about the external courses because at one stage the impression was given that we were questioning the very excellent and well organised detailed courses being run by FÁS in their training centres.
My concern lies with the external courses on which we spent £6.8 million in 1990 to cover approximately 400 external courses throughout the country. The courses are funded by taxpayers money and European Social Fund money. I am not happy that the proper assessment or, more important, that the level of placement of the graduates of these courses is as high as is being stated by the Department. I would refer to the "guesstimate" given by the Secretary of the Department of Labour at a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts that 70 per cent of people were placed but when pressed he said no survey was done on the external courses.
I hope we are getting value for money and that the Minister will give us that assurance tonight. I would like an assurance also that we are not just in the numbers game in relation to these courses.
Deputy Allen might now make his one minute statement to the Minister for Energy.
I am raising tonight the need to extend the national gas grid to the satellite towns of Blarney, Riverstown and Glanmire and villages around Cork city as well as to the suburban area of Ballyvolane in Cork city. I am asking the Minister to ensure that the potential of our natural gas resources are utilised to the full. I want the Minister to extend the gas grid to these towns and the suburbs of Cork city for two reasons. Natural gas is environmentally clean and is a substitute for oil and coal which we have to import.
I very much regret the compartmentalisation of the environmental issue. When I raised the use of natural gas in towns and villages in the context of the environment, I was told it was a matter for the Minister of the Environment. I ask the Department of Energy and the Department of the Environment to get together to ensure that the potential of natural gas is used fully in all our towns and villages where it is economically viable to do so. It is environmentally important and is also a very efficient import substitute.
I thank Deputies McGinley and Allen for their questions. I have secured an Exchequer allocation of £57.785 million for the social employment scheme this year and it represents an increase of more than £7 million on last year's allocation. The Community assistance of £9 million approximately is available which means that there is a total of £67 million available for expenditure on the scheme this year. There are more than 11,700 people on the scheme at present involved in about 2,000 projects throughout the country and the available funding of £67 million will allow an average participation level of £10,500. This is a very significant level of expenditure and is evidence of the Government's commitment to help the long term unemployed.
If there is a difficulty it is because FÁS operate on a regional basis and each region has its own budget to cover the provision of training and employment schemes in the region. This ensures a more equitable distribution of FÁS operations throughout the country resulting in some cases in requests for projects under the various schemes in parts of the country where demands did not exist prior to regionalisation. There still will be over 10,000 people on the scheme.
The other difficulty that may have arisen is that the introduction of the child dependant allowance last year proved very attractive to older unemployed people who now participate in the scheme far more than they ever did. Fifty-seven per cent of participants have adult and child dependants compared with only 30 per cent at the end of 1989. We are endeavouring on a regional basis to ensure that it is spread as fairly and evenly as possible.
In regard to Deputy Allen's question FÁS collects regular information on placement of all trainees, those placed in training centres and on external training courses, and the information indicates that the placement of mainline training programmes such as specific skills training, enterprise training and apprenticeship was between 65 and 70 over the last number of years. I thank the Deputy for his remarks in that regard.
In regard to external training, I asked FÁS some time ago to carry out further research on placements. That relates to the question the Deputy asked at the meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts. A very detailed survey was carried out on behalf of FÁS by the ESRI in 1990 and I understand the results are currently being analysed by the ESRI. I do not believe it is necessary for the Department but I certainly will make the examination of the level of placement from external courses public.
Last year I brought in new regulations covering external training to make sure that there are audit procedures and that there is more accountability. I hope both mechanisms will ensure that training is more efficient and better value than previously.
We will now hear a reply from the Minister for Energy, Deputy Robert Molloy.
As I mentioned in the House recently, Bord Gáis Éireann are currently undertaking a pilot project, with the intention of supplying gas to two housing estates in Dublin which had not been linked to the grid up to now. The results of this trial will not only enable the board to draw up a programme for connecting up other non-gas estates in Dublin, it will also provide the basis for considering an extension of the grid to non-gas estates in Cork and other urban areas linked to the existing national gas grid.
BGE have, of course, a statutory obligation to earn a commercial return on their capital investment, and, in the light of that obligation, the board will connect only those areas where there is a sufficient take-up of gas to mount a viable project. I am glad Deputy Allen agrees with that, viability is the bottom line in these matters. In areas where the possibility of a connection is under examination, estates will be surveyed to find out the level of take-up. At the same time BGE will explain to residents the costs involved for them in changing over to gas.
The Deputy will appreciate that only a small proportion of householders in areas already served by the gas grid currently use gas central heating. This leaves a considerable market for expansion within the area of the existing grid. I would expect the board to continue to give priority to targeting this market since it requires comparatively little capital expenditure and would provide a more immediate return on investment.
The Deputy recently raised the matter, by way of a Dáil Question, of extending supply to Blarney, Riverstown and Glanmire. I took the matter up with Bord Gáis Éireann and I understand that because the size of the potential loads in these areas is not sufficient to meet the significant capital costs involved in providing a supply, viable projects could not be put in place at this time.
I should say, however, that the natural gas grid has recently been extended into Carrigaline and this year a network will be developed to serve the commercial and domestic markets in the town. I understand, also, that the feasibility of extending the grid to Ballincollig and of developing the commercial and domestic markets in Midleton in the future is being considered actively by BGE.
The Dáil adjourned at 7.50 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Friday, 22 March 1991.