Vol. 509 No. 6
113 Mr. C. Lenihan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the plans, if any, she has to reform the eligibility criteria for participation on FÁS courses in order that women working in the home can also avail of them. [21009/99]
Following a restructuring of the community employment (CE) programme, approved by Government in July 1999, the dependent spouses of long-term unemployed persons – qualified adults – and widows are now eligible to participate in CE. These categories of women were added as I believe it was anomalous that women who had spent most of their lives as carers in the family home should be excluded from eligibility for CE at a time when they need to have access to the labour market.
I have no plans at present to further expand the eligibility conditions for women for CE or associated programmes. However, a working group, representative of the social partners, is currently considering the issue of women's access to labour market opportunities and is expected to report to Government shortly. Any further changes in eligibility conditions to active labour market programmes will be considered in the light of the recommendations of this group.
It should be noted that any woman wishing to return to the workforce can avail of the services of FÁS, either for employment placement or for training, and such supports can frequently be more appropriate than going onto programmes such as CE. The return to work programme, for which there is no live register requirement, is particularly suited to women returning in that it helps participants to develop the confidence necessary to re-enter the labour force, and is also an important bridging programme for progression onto other FÁS programmes. The programme is delivered on a part-time basis within local communities and in 1998 was completed by 1,065 women. Others move directly into skills training programmes and into enterprise training and from there directly into employment or self-employment.
It is also important to note that more than half of the participants on CE in 1998 were women and women accounted for 54 per cent of trainees on FÁS training programmes that year. I believe that this clearly demonstrates the emphasis placed by FÁS on the issue of facilitating women's access to FÁS programmes as a route to reintegration to the open labour market.
