asked the Minister for Labour if, in view of the fact that many community and voluntary organisations have been unable to secure funding for social employment schemes with the result that many socially desirable projects have been unable to get off the ground, he will increase the funds available for these schemes next year; and if he will make a satement on the matter.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Social Employment Scheme.
5.
The allocation provided for the social employment scheme in my Department's 1989 Estimate will allow the same level of activity under the scheme as in 1988. The small reduction in the allocation will be achieved through reducing the materials grant to local authority projects. I have decided that this reduction should not apply to voluntary bodies sponsoring projects under the scheme.
The Minister must be aware, as he replied to questions on this issue in June, that the allocation for 1988 was not adequate to deal with the number of schemes that could have continued or could have been got off the ground. Will the Minister agree that there is a need to increase the allocation for 1989, particularly as there is no apparent hope of increased job availability in view of the number of redundancies this year?
Having discussed this at length with FÁS and the Department officials during the course of the last few months, we believe that the proposed intake of 9,600 man-years in 1989 will be possible. If this is proved not to be so, the question can be re-examined. This year difficulties arose in that there was a very high intake in the early months and in the last months of last year. While 9,600 man-years was the figure intended, for the first six months of the year the intake was in excess of 11,000 and in some months it was over 12,000. There was also the difficultry relating to establishing FÁS and the changing of the system from a cash-based system in the Department of Labour to an accrualbased system in FÁS. The temporary suspension of the scheme during July and August was just so that we could check that we had not gone out of line and that FÁS would be able to comply with their commitments and responsibilities. Since then 5,900 applications approved by the monitoring committee in the early months of the year were finalised and we proceeded to recruit the necessary numbers. At a meeting of the monitoring committee last week 2,600 additional places were proposed and, hopefully, we will be able to take a substantial number of those prior to Christmas out of the same allocations for 1988 as that proposed for 1989.
Did the Minister say that with a reduced amount of capital he will maintain the same level of activity in 1989 due to the reduction of the materials granted to local authorities only?
Yes.
Will the Minister indicate what the reduction will be?
It will be from 53 per cent to 40 per cent.
Question No. 6 please.
Will the Minister confirm he is simply ensuring that the allocation of places will be spread over the full 12 months of 1989. Does the Minister agree that the apparent demand that existed in 1988 will still continue in 1989 and that, therefore, there will be no improvement for those organisations that want to get new schemes off the ground, if they do not come within the quotas laid down for each region?
The social employment scheme has been a great success and as people find different uses for the scheme the demand is continually increasing. There is also a demand from people to continue schemes and there are difficulties relating to that which will be dealt with later. This figure of 9,600 man-years given by FÁS costing substantial Exchequer sums amounting to about £43 million complies more or less with the needs of the schemes. This year some of the schemes have been reduced, particularly local authority ones because some local authorities submitted high figures and having resolved the difficulties many of them did not take on all the people on social employment schemes. We are maintaining the level at about what was proposed originally, that is, at 9,600 man-years. If these figures are not adequate they will be reconsidered. I am continually monitoring the economic benefits of the social employment scheme rather than just supplementing social employment scheme money with social welfare. All the benefits to the State must be examined to see exactly how cost effective the scheme is but 9,600 man-years is adequate for the demand at present.
Will the Minister consider making more funds available to those regions where the scheme has obviously been more successful, for example, Kerry where we used up our quota very quickly? Now certain schemes cannot go ahead, although in one case a scheme would provide 22 jobs and people have been chosen for this work which now cannot go ahead because of the quota system. Will the Minister consider increasing the allocation to places where the scheme has obviously been more successful?
I agree with Deputy Deenihan that Kerry is very successful in taking people on. I often wondered if the whole economy of Kerry is being run by the social employment scheme. The funds must be spread on a fairly even basis. While we are glad to see that Kerry continually wins the Tidy Towns and other competitions on the basis of the success of the social employment scheme, it is difficult to continue to give very high allocations of numbers to regions. At this time of the year if is difficult to get people in some regions to come under the social employment scheme.
I interrupt to say that progress is very sluggish at Question Time today.
The reason Kerry has been so successful is——
(Interruptions).
I want to make progress on some other question.
Yes, but——
The Deputy is not helping me, is he?
The Minister said it was costing the Exchequer £43 million. Is that a net cost to the Exchequer? Does it include the Social Fund contribution from the EC? What savings were made by the Department of Social Welfare by having 9,000 people who are not claiming benefit or assistance?
I have not got those figures. The Exchequer figure from the Book of Estimates is £38,680,000. There is a far lower figure but I think £15.60 is the ESF contribution. It is a far lower contribution that would be given for normal training schemes.
(Interruptions.)
Deputy Birmingham, a final and a brief supplementary, please.
Will the Minister accept that the reason this scheme has been so successful is that large numbers of voluntary bodies have come forward with imaginative proposals, in some cases to undertake tasks that were important to them but in other cases as a specific, direct and intended response to employment? Would he accept that if these voluntary bodies are to be messed up by a stop-go attitude there is a real danger they will lose confidence in the scheme? It behoves him to ensure that adequate funds are made available to meet their requests.
We endeavoured during the summer to avoid or minimise any delays for voluntary bodies. They do excellent work in the areas of the handicapped, tourism, the environment and all kinds of civic improvements. There seems to be no end to the uses of the scheme. There is limited but still substantial money available and we try to give necessary resources to good schemes and continue them on without their becoming long-term schemes going on indefinitely.
What is the balance between voluntary and statutory?
I do not have that information.
6.
asked the Minister for Labour if he is prepared to allocate additional funds to FÁS for social employment schemes in the near future.
FÁS has indicated to me that they will be in a position to meet their commitments under the social employment scheme without any additional allocation of funds this year.
As the Minister is aware, local authorities are the biggest employers where social service schemes are concerned. A number of projects had to be suspended by local authorities in recent months. Now that they are approaching their Estimates time it is important that local authorities would know exactly if the existing schemes can continue and if additional schemes can be planned. Will the Minister give some information on that?
We have given fairly high allocations to local authority schemes. These schemes will now run for 52 weeks up to September-October next year. They know the position between now and next autumn and thereafter it is a matter for the monitoring committee.
Local authorities cannot plan additional schemes. They only have money for existing schemes.
A number of local authorities which did not participate in the scheme because of difficulties about short time working and lay-offs are now back in the scheme. There are a number of new schemes and up to 5,000 places have been approved. This month alone 2,500 places have been approved and a high proportion of these would be for local authorities.