Vol. 407 No. 5
8 Tomás Mac Giolla asked the Minister for Labour the progress which has been made in implementing the special measures for the unemployed in urban disadvantaged areas which were promised in the Programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The comprehensive package of measures for employment creation announced by me on 27 September 1989 took account of the Government's commitment to initiate special measures in urban disadvantaged areas as outlined in the Programme for Government.
Progress to date in the implementation of these measures is as follows: Up to 29 March 1991, over 1,700 persons from urban disadvantaged areas have been recruited under the social employment scheme since September, 1989; £500,000 was provided from national lottery funds in 1990 to provide assistance towards the cost of materials for community youth training programme projects in urban disadvantaged areas. The allocation was spent in 1990 on 26 CYTP projects in the urban disadvantaged areas; a special programme for older long term unemployed who left school without qualifications was initiated on a pilot basis. To date, some 100 older early school leavers have been trained in community training workshops with the aid of specially designed curricula, where appropriate; grants of up to £20,000 have been made available under the community enterprise programme towards the cost of establishing workspaces in disadvantaged areas generally; FÁS are taking a lead role in organising and encouraging community projects and in getting sponsors for Teamwork, SES, CYTP in the disadvantaged areas. FÁS are encouraging local groups to undertake projects by liaising with community leaders, promoting projects through local media and giving resources for training in project management skills.
The package also included a number of other measures which will benefit disadvantaged persons generally including payment of a training bonus of £10 per week to trainees with dependants and revamping and redirecting the employment incentive scheme towards the long term unemployed, early school leavers and other disadvantaged persons and increasing the overall grant available to employers to recruit additional workers.
The package also provided for a change in the payment system under the enterprise scheme where the weekly payment would be increased and paid over a shorter period in order to give greater assistance at the start up phase of the enterprise. The training bonus and the increased payments under the enterprise scheme and the employment incentive scheme have been payable since 30 October 1989.
The Deputy will appreciate that the provision of detailed information on particular measures would be a day to day matter for FÁS.
The Deputy will be aware that the Programme for Economic and Social Progress provides for an integrated approach to implement a community response in particular areas to long term unemployment. The programme specifies that the approach will be piloted in both urban and rural areas in 1991 and on the basis of a satisfactory review, models will be progressively extended nationwide by 1994 as resources become available from a growing economy. As the Deputy will be aware, 12 locations have already been selected for the pilot projects and it is hoped to have the local companies operational by the beginning of May.
Would the Minister agree that while all he read out sounds quite plausible and looks well on paper, having regard to the scale of the problem of unemployment in disadvantaged urban areas, it really is only scratching the surface? Is he aware of the alienation in this city in those pockets of endemic unemployment where vandalism and petty crime is rife at the moment? Is he aware of the recent report of the chief welfare officer of Dublin Corporation? Having regard to that complex, difficult, lasting problem, does he agree that the measures he has just read into the record are inadequate to cope with what is the most serious social problem confronting our society?
The question asked me for an update on the programmes and I have given it. Enough is never done. I am familiar with the problems involved as I represent a number of the areas with the highest unemployment in the country. When it comes to crime, unfortunately areas of my constituency manage to come No. 1 on the scale.
Various integrated schemes are being run by FÁS and in many of these areas the only activity is the FÁS schemes. The new area based companies which we are setting up are based on 18 people, six from employers, six from trade unions and six from the local community to try to promote training, enterprise, skills and advancement into real jobs. This is the way to go. We are making slow progress but I do not agree with the Deputy that what is happening is not useful. The new area based schemes are badly needed.
How long will these pilot projects last if they are found to be successful, and can they be regarded as of general application because every town and village has disadvantaged areas? Surely these areas can look forward to the general application of the scheme if it is successful.
The advantage of the system is the integration of the substantial amounts of State funds which go into these areas in one form or another. We have not had integration in order to gain results. The administrative costs of the company will be paid and the company will operate with its own staff and secretariat which will be answerable to the national committee. All the statutory and voluntary agencies in an area will work on one criterion instead of, as we had, three organisations in the one area trying in different ways to build the same type of community centre. I cannot say if the company system will work but it is forcing an identification of the problems and the integration of the resources to try to tackle the problem which, as Deputy Rabbitte said, is very serious in certain areas.
I acknowledge that the Minister is trying to do something about this but does he not agree that the scale of the problem is so great that there are huge areas of this city which have become "no go" areas for the gardaí, priests, social workers and so on and that what is needed rather than bland prescriptions and pilot projects is a major dynamic crash programme to tackle the problem immediately? The problem is of frightening proportions and as Deputy Rabbitte says there seems to be a subculture of crime that needs urgent remedial action.
I do not know about any of the areas being "no go" for some of the categories mentioned, but there is no part of my area which is "no go" for me. The problem is not that bad. There is high unemployment and social deprivation and there are distinct disadvantages in some areas. It is traditional in some areas. This must be tackled in an integrated way. I do not say that the schemes to which I referred will eliminate all the problems, but they help. The community workshop scheme is particularly useful because the people trained in such workshops tend to find jobs. What we need to do is redirect money towards schemes which will be of help in taking people out of traps.
