Máirín Quill
Question:6 Miss Quill asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will make the student summer job scheme available to those who have completed the Leaving Certificate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9930/97]
Priority Questions. - Summer Jobs Scheme.
The underlying purpose of the students' summer jobs scheme, which was introduced in 1993, is to provide summer work opportunities and income support for less well off third level students and students undertaking multi-year PLC courses who are in need of such support.
A sum of £3 million was allocated towards this scheme in the 1994 Budget and this was increased by me to £6 million in 1995. Improvements which I made in the scheme in 1995 involved the allocation of an additional £4 million. In 1996, £10.2 million was allocated for the scheme and a similar amount has been approved by the Government for this year's scheme.
I made significant improvements in the scheme in 1995 by increasing the amount payable per student from £520 to £600. This level of support has been maintained this year. I also allowed third level students with even a minimum entitlement under the means-tested unemployment assistance scheme to take part. These changes resulted in a very significant increase in the number of students participating in the scheme — in 1994, 9,200 students took part, while in 1995 and last year the number increased to just under 16,000. This year I expect a similar number to take part.
To date this year, sponsors have registered over 23,000 jobs for the 1997 scheme and I am confident that this year's scheme will be as successful and as beneficial to local communities and students as previous schemes. I have no plans to extend the scheme to new categories of students.
Since the Minister's clear understanding appears to be that the scheme has been successful, is that the feedback he has had from participating students in recent years? Arising from that degree of success and in the light of the unspecified promise given by the Tánaiste at the Labour Party conference in Limerick last weekend — when he spoke about a social guarantee for all young people between, 17 and 21 — does he consider an extension of the scheme downwards to leaving certificate students one of the best means of putting that type of promise into action?
It must be borne in mind that this scheme was first introduced following the abolition of unemployment assistance for third level students and is confined to that category who do not have an underlying entitlement of unemployment assistance. The intention is to provide an income for students from families with low incomes deprived of unemployment assistance. That is the basis on which the scheme has been operated to date. There would be substantial costs involved in extending the provisions of the scheme to second level students on completing their leaving certificate examinations. My understanding is that approximately 60,000 students sit the leaving certificate each year. Bearing in mind that the scheme now costs £10 million to provide places for 16,000 students any extension would involve considerable cost.
Can the Minister give the House an indication of the activities undertaken by students who participated in this scheme in previous years and is it his intention to add any new range of activities in ensuing years? Will he take account of the fact that a number of environmentally beneficial works could be undertaken by students, on completion of their leaving certificates, at almost no cost to the Exchequer if we could devise a framework within which that type of work could be tailored to the terms of the scheme, thus ensuring value for taxpayers' money and allowing those young people from families needing to benefit from this type of support to be usefully occupied immediately after sitting their leaving certificates?
The jobs position has changed dramatically from what it was three or four years ago when the scheme was introduced. I am aware that, in summertime, the tourism and catering industries encounter great difficulty recruiting staff to fill vacancies to cater adequately for the huge numbers of visitors now coming to our shores. Any suggestion that second level or third level students, ineligible under the provisions of this scheme, are left high and dry is not accurate because there are jobs available for many of them. For instance, I know that many students before and after participation in the summer job scheme engage in other work; in some cases, depending on how they structure their working time, in part-time work. There is a great deal of work available to them.
The survey undertaken of students who participate in the scheme showed that approximately 86 per cent were satisfied with the basic rate of pay; many simultaneously having availed of the option of engaging in other part-time work. The kinds of projects undertaken involve collection and research of traditional songs, surveys of energy consumption in homes and businesses, with recommendations being made, coaching in GAA and other clubs, golf course maintenance, rural research and surveys, care of and assistance for the elderly and children with a mental handicap, tourist information, summer camps for children from deprived areas and so on. Some 30 sponsors undertook some type of work to help the elderly, varying from carrying out surveys to undertaking chores for them. There is no real restriction on participants in the scheme other than the requirement that it be valuable community work unlikely to displace people already in work; in other words, funding of this type will not be provided to people who may be commercially orientated. It is not intended to provide a commercial service.
Has the Minister any information indicating that summer jobs may not be as readily available to young students this year because of the restrictions imposed by the provisions of the recently passed Organisation of Working Time Bill?
I do not have any information on that matter. It is a question which should more properly be addressed to the Minister for Enterprise and Employment. I have no reason to believe the provisions of that Bill will impose such restrictions but my colleague would be in a better position to provide that information to the Deputy.