Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 26 May 1993

Vol. 431 No. 4

Adjournment Debate. - Social Employment Scheme Projects.

Mr. J. Higgins

Today is a wet, miserable day, the kind of miserable day to make one wonder, even if one had a job, whether one should get up but, for the 300,000 people who signed the live register today, or who will sign it tomorrow, I am sure when they looked out this morning they wondered whether there was anything worth getting up for.

Scattered throughout the length and breadth of this country are communities in every niche and corner with social employment schemes at the ready, in the traps, all set to go, all awaiting the green light from the Minister. They have been organised by FÁS, Manpower staff and placement staff. They are avid communities who want to put in place recreation schemes, sporting schemes, cultural schemes in order to enhance their communities.

One of the best schemes ever devised has been the social employment scheme because it has given, particularly the long term unemployed, an opportunity to face into the open daylight with dignity. It has given them a sense of purpose and motivation. It has enabled people who have been on the live register for three and four years, very often longer, the incentive to take a shovel, trowel, a saw, or spirit level into their hand and go out and engage in work and at the same time, contribute to their community.

Surely it is economic lunacy, at a time when there is so much work to be done, so many people ready, willing and able to do it, to pay anybody £55 unemployment assistance when, for a mere £15 supplement, the same people could be engaged for one year on a social employment scheme as part of a team or community effort?

I have been approached by people and communities in County Mayo, in particular, and in adjacent Counties Galway and Roscommon on the periphery of my constituency, who have been told that no further social employment schemes will go ahead in County Mayo in particular until November or December next. We are facing into the summer season, with, I hope, better weather than we have had to date, into long, daylight hours and it is absolute economic lunacy to hold back on the stocks social employment schemes, not give them the green light until October, November or pre-Christmas. The obvious thing would be to give them the go-ahead and make money available to enable the communities concerned to harness and exploit natural resources, such as daylight, and to maximise the return. I appeal to the Minister to use his good offices with the Minister for Enterprise and Employment to have additional means made available to enable those communities who are avid, willing, hungry and ready to go to proceed with work on the schemes in the next few weeks so that they can maximise the return during the summer months.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (Mr. Hyland)

I appreciate the Deputy's concerns in raising this matter. In the Book of Estimates an Exchequer allocation of £83.811 million was made available to FÁS for expenditure on the social employment scheme in 1993. Recently the Government approved the provision of a further £13.5 million for the scheme bringing total funding in 1993 to £97.3 million. This allocation will provide opportunities for an average of 15,500 people on the social employment scheme and the community employment development programme which replaced the social employment scheme in the 12 areas designated under the Programme for Economic and Social Progress area based strategy to combat long term unemployment each week. The number of participants involved at any particular time will vary, depending on the number of projects in operation.

The scheme is the principal manpower intervention aimed at the long term unemployed and has been in operation since 1984. It provides opportunities, albeit on a part-time basis, for long term unemployed people, to become involved for a year in a work related situation. This provides the discipline of working again and gives an opportunity to learn new skills and practise existing skills which should improve the prospects for participants of obtaining employment when full-time employment opportunities arise.

Just over half of participants on the SES and CEDP are persons with adult and child dependants. This level of participation by older long term unemployed people with dependants is very satisfactory and has come about due to the availability since 1990 of a child dependant allowance. The current levels of payment to participants are £75 per week for a person without a dependant, £107.50 per week for a participant with an adult dependant and participants with children can also get up to £12.50 per week per child. I am happy that these rates will be increased from July next to £77 for a participant without a dependant, £110.70 for a participant with an adult dependant, while the rate for a child will be up to £12.80.

The scheme represents a successful collaboration between local communities and the State in that local groups sponsoring projects come forward with proposals for projects in their communities, many of which involve improvements to local amenities. In addition, local communities must come up with a certain element of funding for the projects to supplement the assistance available under the scheme for materials and supervision. A wide variety of projects is undertaken under the scheme ranging from projects improving the local environment, sports, arts, tourism projects to community development and all Deputies are well aware of the benefits to local communities and local unemployed people brought about through the scheme.

The scheme is, however, to a certain extent a victim of its own success and one of the difficulties which has arisen over the years is that some voluntary groups providing services on a continuing basis at local level have come to rely on schemes such as the social employment scheme for assistance in providing their services. As such the schemes are in danger of becoming project driven. The social employment scheme, and Teamwork which is targeted at unemployed people under 25, were not intended to provide assistance on an ongoing basis for projects. The intention with regard to the social employment scheme was that projects would be of a finite nature which would allow flexibility in providing opportunities for long term unemployed people where such opportunities were needed, having regard to the level of unemployment in different parts of the country and the available resources. Obviously it would be unfair if projects were automatically renewed each year as this would mean that new projects, no matter how deserving or necessary, could not be considered.

Intake to the scheme must be managed by FÁS to ensure that expenditure is kept within the available resources and an equitable distribution of projects throughout the country based on local needs. FÁS must have the flexibility to manage the scheme having regard to the needs of the long term unemployed throughout the country and the available Exchequer resources.

EC support for the scheme is being sought in the context of the 1994 to 1999 round of Structural Funds with the aim of moving towards a doubling of participation levels to 30,000 each year. The Government was very conscious that some long term unemployed people were not interested in participating in the social employment scheme because they would lose their secondary social welfare benefits. The community employment development programme has replaced the social employment scheme in the 12Programme for Economic and Social Progress areas on a pilot basis since last October. Under the programme a training element is being provided on projects involving 15 or more participants who retain their secondary social welfare benefits such as butter vouchers, fuel allowance, etc. The operation of the programme will be evaluated to assess its effectiveness in assisting persons who are long term unemployed.