Seán Ryan
Question:10 Mr. Ryan asked the Minister for Labour whether, in the light of the increasing number of people on long term unemployment, he will outline the schemes he is proposing to assist these people return to the workforce.
Ceisteanna-Questions. Oral Answers. - Long-term Unemployed.
FÁS, through their training activities and employment schemes, provide assistance for the long term unemployed to assist them return to the workforce. Over 2,000 will be trained this year on the alternance training programme which is aimed at the long term unemployed and an average of 10,500 people will participate each week on the social employment scheme. The employment incentive scheme provides assistance to employers to encourage them to recruit long term unemployed people and FÁS expect that about 1,000 long term unemployed people will be assisted into employment this year through the scheme. FÁS will continue to co-operate with the Department of Social Welfare in the provision of counselling and training of unemployed persons through Job-search.
With regard to other measures, the Programme for Economic and Social Progress includes proposals for an area based response to long term unemployment. The strategy is area based and local communities are the primary movers. Twelve locations have been selected for pilot projects and local companies have already been established in a number of the areas.
The remaining areas will have companies in a matter of weeks. The operation of the pilot projects is to be reviewed before the end of the year and based on that review satisfactory models will be progressively extended nationwide by 1994, as resources become available from a growing economy.
In view of the increase in the number of people unemployed, would the Minister not agree that it is necessary to create extra places on FÁS schemes in the current year? FÁS are doing quite a good job, despite the magnitude of the problem. However, there is a need for an injection of more finance into this area to try to cope with the problems. Many people are trying to get on those courses and they are unable to do so because the allocations are very low.
I agree with the Deputy. We are looking at all the training areas and trying to maximise the potential. We have rationalised many of the programmes that are not as good as we would like them to be and maximising the ones that are. I hope to increase the figures on the social employment scheme in the next week or so.
Does the Minister have an explanation for the fact that there is so much work to be done, so many potholes in every county, so many derelict sites, so many elderly people needing home help, so many schools needing nursing aid, secretaries and caretakers, and these jobs are not being done? Why can the Government not take thousands more off the unemployment register and put them doing those jobs?
I hope that by late summer we will have about 10,000 extra on social employment schemes. There will be a question later from Deputy Mitchell about the number involved on training schemes. I am very cautious about taking people off the dole and putting them on training schemes that are in any way useless. The money we get from the European Social Fund is for training which, hopefully, will lead to guaranteed employment or a good opportunity for sustainable jobs. If money was no object we could do what the Deputy suggests. The social employment scheme, which some people say is not that expensive, costs several millions of pounds. This year the cost of the social employment scheme will be about £70 million.
Will the Minister clarify whether the expenditure on pilot projects in local communities is coming from the current budget or if money has been allocated for them? If it is not coming out of excess budget it amounts to a displacement of jobs in other areas and replacing them with a new initiative.
In relation to the social employment scheme does the Minister think that with so many people unemployed, 10,500 jobs this year as opposed to 13,000 last year is an indicator of a serious intention to do something about unemployment.
I hope to increase the numbers on the social employment scheme shortly. There were some administrative decisions made in the estimate for January for area based strategy. The Taoiseach, and the Minister for Finance, in reply to questions on this recently said that advertisements were in the papers for the management of these companies in the 12 pilot areas.
And extra finance will be provided?
As a member of the Government who introduced the social employment scheme I have a certain interest in it. Will the Minister not agree that the time has come to reform or extend the scheme in a way that will not cost the Exchequer extra money in order to put more thousands of people to work in jobs that urgently need to be done? In respect of Dublin city and county, how many applications are there for places on social employment schemes that the Minister has not been able to grant?
I have not got the figures for each area. The county council are now using the scheme but Dublin Corporation are not. However, the voluntary bodies are using the scheme fairly extensively in Dublin.
Will the Minister accept that in Dublin the scheme is less used than in almost any other county and that Dublin is the county with the highest unemployment?
Certainly, in recent years the ratio in Dublin has been far less because of the non co-operation of the unions. However, the intelligence of the Dublin voluntary groups is beginning to find ways around that. I would need to look at the figures, but use of the scheme is certainly increasing.
We have people in Cork objecting for genuine reasons and it is necesary to spell out the reasons for the objections. We had the same response in the House last week during the debate on the Private Members Bill from Fine Gael. There is a fear on the part of the unions that the social employment scheme is being used to replace full time jobs.
Unemployment is so grave now that we cannot allow fear or protection of unions to stop people getting jobs, and I do not care what the Labour Party or Deputy O'Sullivan say.
I am determined to expand the systems we have to the extent that finance allows.
The uptake in the Dublin region is a matter I raised with the Minister recently. Would the Minister consider making available some advisory method to communities where the uptake as a proportion of the live register is so much lower than elsewhere in the country, through FÁS or whatever mechanism? Would the Minister consider advising communities on the mechanics of establishing a project that qualifies for social employment assistance and could increase the number of workers employed under that scheme? We all agree that it is lack of knowledge and of infrastructure in some of the newer areas, especially of Dublin, that is the cause of the lower than average uptake of the scheme as compared to parts of the country.
I will do what Deputy Rabbitte suggests through the regional offices of FÁS. During my last Question Time we spoke about area-based strategy and how that operates in deprived areas and areas where there is high unemployment. While FÁS operate training centres in those areas, we do not have voluntary support from the communities because they have not got the resources. They find it difficult to raise funds. One community may raise £20,000 and another community very little. I have been trying to use the area-based strategy to try to push the resources and give a bias towards those communities. I have done that to the best of my ability. I have no difficulty about undertaking the advisory aspect.