I move amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"– calls on Members of the House to fully respect the laws enacted by the Oireachtas and to respect the institutions of the State;
– notes the significant reductions in unemployment and poverty since 1997;
– acknowledges the valuable contribution which community employment, the job initiative programme and other labour market measures have made to reducing long-term unemployment in recent years;
– recognises the important contribution that community employment and the job initiative programme have made to services for local community groups and organisations throughout the country;
– notes the ongoing restructuring of community employment designed to maintain an adequate number of places in the context of the much improved labour market for job seekers;
– notes that a number of reviews in relation to community employment and the job initiative programme are currently nearing completion and that a decision on the future funding and structure of these programmes will be taken in the context of the Estimates provision for 2004, having regard to the outcome of the current review process; and
– commends the Government for ensuring that the tax burden on low income workers is the lowest in the EU and that maintaining this is essential to maintaining a low level of unemployment."
I wish to share my time with the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Tim O'Malley.
I thank the Independent Deputies for tabling this motion. Many aspects of the motion refer to legitimate policy issues but it has another aspect to which I was surprised to see so many Members of this House were prepared to sign their names. I will deal with that in a moment. The motion clearly has the support of Sinn Féin and the Green Party.
The motion is wide ranging. The community employment programme, which figures strongly in the motion and in the contributions made by most of the Deputies who have spoken, falls within the remit of my Department. I begin by knocking a myth on the head. Since 1997, when I was given responsibility for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the budget for FÁS has doubled. Almost the only option for people who were unemployed, lone parents and others in the 1990s, when the economy was growing, was a community employment scheme. They had no option of being trained for anything that could give them a decent standard of living. It is untrue to say that less money is being spent on labour market intervention. This year we will spend close to €850 million on labour market interventions through community employment and training. That is a substantial resource in an economy which has an employment rate of 4.4%.
Community employment, which succeeded social employment, was introduced at a time when the economy had 17% unemployment, mass emigration and no opportunities. It was introduced to provide opportunities for the huge numbers of people who were long-term unemployed and to provide transitional arrangements to help people to move from unemployment into work. When community employment was first introduced there was one CE place for every six long-term unemployed people. In 1997, when I took over at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, we had 40,000 on community employment schemes and more than 90,000 long-term unemployed. Today, long-term unemployment is down to 26,000. One has to respond to circumstances as they change and it would irresponsible of the Government not to respond to the situation that has emerged. Community employment was set up to deal with a problem which has almost been solved.
Notwithstanding the fact that the unemployment situtation has changed substantially, we remain committed to supporting community employment, both as a measure to help people progress from unemployment into work and as an essential support for community services and social services on the ground. That is why, this year, there will be an average of 25,000 people on community employment and job initiative schemes. While, in some circumstances, the additional amount of money someone receives by going from unemployment benefit to an employment scheme is as little as €20, the average payment to people on community employment is €12,000 and not the sum of money mentioned earlier.
More than 6,000 of the people on community employment are lone parents and for them the payment is substantially higher. Because of initiatives introduced in recent years different people receive different rates. The average payment to someone on the job initiative scheme is in the region of €19,000. That scheme was introduced by the rainbow Government between 1994 and 1997. It was recognised that many long-term unemployed people were not moving into work, nothwithstanding the jobs that were being created in the economy, and this was introduced as a more intensive employment scheme for a three year period. Many people have been on the scheme for eight years because I made the decision some years ago not to enforce the three year limit strictly. That, too, has its implications because when one does not enforce a limit one does not provide the opportunities for others to move in and move on.
Notwithstanding what has been happening in the economy we have prioritised certain areas for community employment. There are approximately 5,000 CE schemes in RAPID areas, for example. Child care, health care services, personal assistants and others have been priorities. Recently we introduced more flexibility in relation to personal assistants because I recognise that someone who has had a personal assistant for a couple of years forms a close relationship with that person and may find it difficult to develop a relationship with someone else. We need flexibility in relation to those matters. We have also prioritised drugs task force activities. These areas have been prioritised because they are priorities in our communities. One can never have enough money to do everything. I seek to ensure that we chose strategic priorities that can help the country.
I am conscious that a large number of people come to work in Ireland. It is estimated that 100,000 foreign workers are working in our economy. Almost 40,000 permits have been granted this year to people from outside the European Economic Area. Others, such as nurses, have come on work authorisations and many others come from the European Economic Area where no authorisation is required. The economy is generating the kind of employment opportunities of which many of us never dreamed. Ten years ago did any Member think we would ever be importing so much labour into this economy and that it could generate the kind of opportunities that would attract so many to our shores?
A review of the community employment programme is under way. It was restructured in 1999 with the support of the Government in light of the changing circumstances and the priority areas I mentioned were earmarked at that time. We are looking further at the programme to see how we can make it more attractive as a measure to progress people into real jobs in the economy. We all acknowledge that people, particularly young people, have better opportunities in real jobs. That is always a challenge. Many argue that we should keep the existing cohort of individuals on community employment and we have made exceptions in particular circumstances where the strict deadline has not always been applied. However, where we do that fewer opportunities are provided for others to move in.
Discussions on the Estimates are currently under way with the Department of Finance and they will be published in November. Although next year will be another tough year I am confident that we will be in a position to have a substantial and comprehensive community employment programme. At the end of this year almost 25,000 people will be employed on community employment schemes, the social economy and the job initiative programme and we will have had an average of 25,000 on job initiative and community employment schemes for the entire year. That is a huge resource in addition to all the other community supports.
We have mainstreamed positions in schools. It was unsatisfactory that as the beginning of the school year approached schools did not know if they would have caretakers, teaching assistants and so on. Initially mainstreaming was more expensive for schools but, more significantly, when given the choice schools generally did not employ those who had been involved in community employment schemes but made other choices. Concerns were expressed about that from Deputies from all sides of the House. Only today an Opposition Deputy spoke to me about this very matter. Sometimes when one mainstreams the people one wishes to help do not necessarily get the positions but, for a host of reasons, others are chosen. It is also much more expensive to mainstream activities which had previously been provided through community employment.
The Opposition motion commends Deputy Joe Higgins for "his unswerving stand in the pursuit of equity in Irish society". I notice that a majority of those who signed the motion represent constituencies where people have been paying refuse collection charges for a considerable time. Charges appear to have become a big issue only when they were applied in Dublin. I say this as a Dublin Deputy. People in Cavan, Monaghan, Wexford and many other places have been paying these charges for a considerable time. I salute Deputy Gregory and others from the Dublin wing of the Independent group for managing to get their rural colleagues to protest against something their own constituents have been paying for a long time. Is it any wonder people in other parts of the country say things are unfair?