I move:
That a sum not exceeding £109,986,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1984, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Labour, including certain services administered by that Office, and for payment of certain grants-in-aid.
I should like to start by attempting to review the activities which the Department of Labour engage upon. The key issue is employment. No one can be under any illusion about the scale and complexity of the problems which we must tackle to bring about an improved labour market situation.
Much has been achieved over the past 18 months to correct the imbalances in our national finances and to bring about a return to growth in our economy. It is a matter of record that the economy and the employment situation, however unhappy we are with it, has been performing somewhat better than official forecasts predicted even a few months ago. In the first five months of this year, unemployment has remained stable and has fallen in two months.
The substantial rise in unemployment in 1984 which was forecast earlier this year, and used in the planning board's report is overly pessimistic. It now seems that the increase in unemployment during this year will not be of the magnitude predicted by these forecasts.
Similarly, our data on industrial output may have been interpreted more pessimistically than the situation warrants. When industrial output expanded rapidly last year several commentators observed, correctly, that the increase was made possible by a good performance in two sectors, electronics and chemicals. The figures for March, 1984, however which show an increase in output of 15 per cent over March, 1983, also indicate that there is stronger performance over a wider range of sectors.
The point which I want to emphasise from these facts is that the substantial difficulties which we face will not be overcome by heightening a sense of crisis, however natural may be the impatience of those who feel that progress is so slow as to be imperceptible or the caution of those who feel that great principles and vital interests are at stake. Last year's economic forecasts should not and will not be the basis for measures hastily conceived, inadequately thought out and improperly co-ordinated. There is no magic panacea which will eliminate our unemployment problem overnight. There is scope, however, for the development of strategies and initiatives in the manpower policy area for which I have responsibility: to review present strategies, build on existing initiatives and develop new programmes to complement mainstream job creation policies in manufacturing and services.
It was with this in mind that I initiated a review of manpower policy in my Department at the beginning of this year. That initiative has been broadly welcomed by the various manpower agencies operating under my aegis. It is clear that a comprehensive statement on manpower policy is long overdue. A White Paper on Manpower Policy was last published in 1965. The White Paper which I intend to publish later this year will chart the course of manpower policy for the remainder of the eighties and into the nineties.
I anticipate that the White Paper, will first of all address the objectives which we should set for ourselves in the coming years distinguishing between activities designed to contribute to the overall objective of economic and social development and those geared towards the objective of catering for less advantaged groups among the labour force. The paper also will explore the need to integrate the policy instruments available to the Department of Labour with those required for the broader treatment of manpower policy.
In preliminary discussions with the Manpower Consultative Committee which are representative of all the interests involved, including trade unions and employers' organisations, other issues such as training, management development, employment services, transition from school to work and existing schemes have also been identified as warranting treatment.
A second area which needs to be addressed is the relationship between the manpower agencies and other public bodies, or speaking more generally, the relationship between manpower policy and other policies. There is a need for a more integrated approach to the adoption of various policies. Manpower issues should be taken into account in the formulation of other policies. While this is obvious in relation to the development of industrial strategies it is equally valid in regard to education. With increasing emphasis on the transition from school to work a considerable debate has arisen as to where formal academic education ends and where specific preparation for entry to the labour market begins. Concern has been expressed about the duplication and overlap of activities in this area. The outcome of the examination of these concerns by the Minister of State at the Departments of Labour and Education, which will be available shortly, should effectively clarify the situation and lead to a greater measure of understanding between the manpower and education authorities.
The administrative arrangements covering the relationship between the Department of Labour and their agencies are of crucial importance in the context of a coherent manpower policy. The Department must, and will, be the central policy-making body responsible for overall policy formulation and for the setting of objectives for the various agencies. The co-ordination issue will, I am sure, figure largely in the forthcoming debate on the report of the Oireachtas Public Expenditure Committee's proposals to establish a centralised recruitment and training agency. There is one point, however, which I feel it is important to highlight in this context — that the degree of commonality of purpose, of co-operation with one another and of achievement between the various agencies is far greater than the frictions and divisions of opinion so often erroneously portrayed as existing between them.
Manpower policy programmes generally must aim to equitably meet the needs and requirements of all groups in the labour market. There are groups however among the unemployed who are increasingly experiencing grave difficulties in securing initial entry to the labour force, or who have never gained a proper foothold in the market or, as in the case of older experienced workers, are enduring structural unemployment because of the displacement of skills and the general effects of the recession on traditional established industries.
Regardless of what upturn in the economy or expansion of employment opportunities takes place, the problems of these groups in the labour market will not be easily resolved. This is particularly true of the longer-term unemployed in all age groups, but is especially pointed in relation to the needs of older unemployed workers. This forms a third area of major concern in the development of manpower policy.
An increased and more dynamic effort to bring training and manpower services to the over-25's and to those who have not benefited from existing programmes will be required in the future. The extent to which existing programmes should be modified and new programmes developed to assist the long-term unemployed and the structurally unemployed is also being considered and will form the basis of radical new initiatives over the coming months.
In 1984 a very conscious effort is being made to provide a more balanced range of training services to employers and job-seekers. Increased funding available to AnCO is being directed at major expansion of a number of programmes targeted at priority clients.
AnCO's Exchequer provision in 1984 of £46,889,000, including youth levy funding, is estimated to accommodate a significant increased throughput of trainees.
AnCO courses are open to all persons aged 16 years and over who have left school and are unemployed. Courses vary in duration and aim to equip participants with specific skills which will help to improve their job prospects. Most courses are provided at AnCO training centres and mobile training units. Almost 15,000 people will be trained on adult training courses in AnCO centres, in 1984, an 11 per cent increase on 1983 training levels. The training centres are also responsible for running the Community Youth Training Programme (CYTP) involving young unemployed people acquiring training and work experience on local community type projects. In 1984, over 5,000 persons will be trained under CYTP, 10 per cent more than last year.
This year almost 3,000 trainees will pursue AnCO's Workshop Training Programme — an increase of 50 per cent over the numbers catered for in 1983. This programme is targeted at the needs of young unemployed from particular disadvantaged backgrounds. This programme operates mainly in the Dublin inner city and elsewhere in the country for various groups of travelling people.
In responding to the training needs of the unemployed AnCO is fortunate in being able to broaden the range of its courses by using up spare training capacity available in the public and private sectors and by engaging external training agents to conduct certain courses under contract. External training courses are aimed at unemployed adults to meet current and future skill shortages, to enhance the employment prospects of participants, to encourage equal opportunities and to facilitate job creation. External training programmes are expected to train about 13,000 people in 1984.
The existence of such a flexible training capacity has enabled AnCO to develop a variety of special training programmes. For example, the needs of communities remote from AnCO's training centre facilities are also being addressed by the further development of the LINC Programme launched in 1983 to enhance employment creation potential in target areas through training. This programme's emphasis on effective linking of local State services and community interests is a particularly welcome development providing evidence of greater co-ordination efforts by manpower, education and industrial agencies.
Other special programmes for the unemployed are targeted at development of job creation and entrepreneurial skills and at promotion of equality of opportunities. AnCO is also looking into the area of training for co-operative development. AnCO is of course continuing to provide for and oversee apprenticeship training. In particular, AnCO along with industry seeks to ensure that adequate numbers are being trained to meet projected future skilled manpower needs. In recent years AnCO have also had to cater for the needs of young apprentices being made redundant. Nearly 2,600 of these were helped by AnCO in 1983 and this policy of helping unemployed apprentices to continue their training is being maintained.
AnCO's continued exposure to new technology developments in Irish industry is also enhancing its capacity to provide the unemployed with new skills on demand and indeed has put it in a position to adopt new approaches to training by use of this technology. The training needs of entrepreneurs and managers of small businesses have also benefited from AnCO initiatives in this area in the past year and these developments will be built upon in the coming months in response to growing demands.
Job creation is increasingly attracting the interest and involvement of communities and of voluntary and youth organisations. The Youth Employment Agency regards the development of such community-based employment initiatives as a key objective both in creating economically sustainable employment and in raising the general level of enterprise among young people. The agency has adopted a policy of promoting the development of local community responses to employment creation; this means pursuing additional creativity and resources at local level where unemployment and its consequences are most visible and the commitment to action is often highest. This policy seeks to provide a means by which people can explore new areas of work whether in the production of goods or services, and to provide practical advice, support and assistance to community groups investigating or undertaking employment initiatives.
The agency's Community and Youth Enterprise Programme introduced in July 1983 represents an approach through which practical support can be given to community groups involved in developing job-creation projects. The underlying feature of this programme is to help communities to help themselves by providing assistance by way of advice, planning grants, funding of enterprise workers and linkages into the programmes and grant-aid schemes of other State and commercial agencies. The programme is complementary to the enterprise development programmes available from other bodies, such as the IDA, SFADCo, Údarás na Gaeltachta and county development teams. In addition the programme provides for direct financial aid for groups at the point of "start up" specifically to contribute towards capital requirements and project management costs for up to 12 months. The agency is giving priority in the current year to the development and expansion of this programme so as to further encourage and support community employment initiatives.
Experience to date has shown that the nurturing of community enterprise is even more complex than had been originally envisaged. Apart from the obvious problems of practical business expertise which such community groups need, the programme has raised the broader question of the need for support of basic community development. As a result, the agency is currently assessing the extent to which it should become involved in basic community development activity which is not necessarily linked to employment-related activities. The community and youth enterprise programme is to be warmly welcomed, not only as a major and positive initiative in employment creation, but also as a significant recognition of the dynamic and rightful place of the community in influencing and responding to local conditions.
Community initiatives receive further direct support through training and temporary employment schemes such as AnCO's community youth training programme, community training workshops and the grant scheme for youth employment. Each scheme is community-orientated with participants gaining training or temporary employment on specific community projects put forward by community organisations, church bodies, noncommercial groups etc.
Another agency initiative which is motivated as much by the development of community-based employment initiatives as it is by the co-ordination of State programmes at the local level is also worth describing. The problem facing large organisations in relation to their environments has been identified as centering on the difficult process of gathering and disseminating `outside' information. Clearly, access to accurate and detailed information is essential to the development of good policy. Yet, large organisations such as centralised Government agencies, do not always have easy access to information from diverse local sources; nor indeed is this altogether feasible in the development of national policies. However, proposals by the Youth Employment Agency for the creation of local intermediary agencies to be known as Community Training and Employment Consortia (COMTECs) represent a dynamic yet balanced response to this problem; while these new local agencies will operate within national policy guidelines they will allow for youth training and employment programmes to be fully developed and guided by informed local knowledge and expertise. Broadly covering local authority administrative areas the function of COMTECs will be to identify the specific needs and opportunities of their own local areas and to translate these into coherent training and employment programmes for young people. A COMTEC will seek to ensure that the programme funded from the youth employment levy directly address the needs of young people in the local labour market. A basic objective of each COMTEC will also be to pursue co-ordination of the youth training and employment programmes at local level.
Typically a COMTEC will comprise representatives of major local community interests, manpower agencies, such as NMS, AnCO, CERT Ltd., educational interests and other relevant public agencies. I intend to submit proposals for the launching of COMTECs on a pilot basis for Government approval in the near future.
Before concluding this section of my review of manpower and employment matters I want to mention briefly a number of points relating to the main schemes operated by the Department of Labour.
A number of specific initiatives which will stimulate increases in employment creation and economic activity at community level are being considered by the Government at the present time. The highly successful enterprise allowance scheme which involves a relaxation of social welfare restrictions and provides unemployed people who wish to set up their own business with the possibility of securing initial capital and a weekly allowance was relaunched from its pilot basis by the Government in January this year. In each of the last few weeks the scheme has assisted about 140 recipients of unemployment benefit or assistance to go into business for themselves. There are 2,000 participants in the scheme already and three-quarters of them are over 25 years of age. Therefore, the imbalance which many people felt existed in favour of young people is, to a certain extent, being redressed.
Another innovation built into this scheme is the capitalisation of pay-related benefit which will for the first time provide access to the Social Insurance Fund for lump sums to be used as venture capital. Regulations are being prepared to give effect to this aspect of the scheme and they will come into force in a short time. I would add for the information of the House that 60 per cent of the persons who have been assisted under the scheme did not progress beyond intermediate or group certificate standard of education and 68 per cent had been unemployed for six months or more. Sixty-three per cent of participants had been getting more than £50 per week in unemployment payments which is more than they would qualify for under the EAS. Estimates of the net effect of Exchequer costs range from a small saving to about break-even depending on the eventual mix of married to single participants and the amount of benefit to which they are still entitled when they join the scheme. In view of the success of this scheme, it will be necessary for me to move a Supplementary Estimate later.
I have also looked at the employment incentive scheme, which since 1977 has assisted 32,000 unemployed people to secure employment. I have decided to extend the scheme to all activities with the exception of those of the public sector, banking, insurance, building societies and similar financial activities. The conditions that an employer had to be 12 months in business before applying has been revoked.
The premium structure has been simplified and improved. A standard premium of £30 per week for 24 weeks will apply. This represents an improvement of £5 per week for those under 20. More important, I have provided a very attractive incentive for the recruitment of the older, long-term unemployed. I have increased the premium to £60 per week for persons over 25 who have been 12 months on the live register in the period immediately preceding recruitment.
The stability of jobs assisted by the scheme has also been examined and I have considered it necessary to emphasise this in the conditions attaching to the new scheme. There was some evidence to suggest that the scheme was benefiting employers who were recruiting on a temporary basis only. Accordingly, the new scheme provides that payments will not be made where jobs do not survive for 24 weeks. As a corollary to this condition I have introduced, instead of four-weekly payments as before, a once-off payment under the scheme after it has been demonstrated that the job has survived for 24 weeks.
I should, perhaps, mention that this once off payment has the effect of deferring payments under the scheme. The £3 million provided for the scheme will not be utilised in full in 1984 and the saving will be a contribution towards the cost of the Supplementary Estimate for my Department.
Finally, I have confined recruitments under the scheme to two per employer. The research undertaken on the scheme suggested that windfall gains were being received by the larger employers in respect of recruitments which would have taken place irrespective of the incentives of the scheme. These recruitments were mainly in the manufacturing and construction sectors where additional jobs were largely dictated by contracts on-stream. In effect, the employment incentive scheme is now being targeted at the smaller employers where there is a greater prospect at the present time of creating jobs. The scheme, for example, can be availed of by those persons starting off enterprises under the enterprise allowance scheme.
I would like to refer briefly to one aspect of the work experience programme, the concerns which have been expressed about the displacement effects and the possible exploitation of the young persons who participate. In order to deal with both points, I have arranged for the introduction of a number of safeguards. In particular, I am arranging for the introduction of a participants' "charter" under which each young person will be given, before starting a programme, a clear statement of the status of a work experience participant, what conditions apply and details of the actual programme of activities which has been agreed by the placement officer with the sponsoring employer. I am also arranging that there will be access by trade unions to information regarding the distribution of placements under the programme.
