Vol. 417 No. 1
68 Mr. Barry asked the Minister for Labour whether the new employment schemes announced in the budget for 1992 will affect existing schemes; and if so, if he will outline the basis on which he has decided to reallocate the resources.
The employment subsidy scheme and the job training scheme announced in the budget are now in operation. The first participants have been recruited under the employment subsidy scheme.
The employment subsidy scheme is a marginal wage subsidy scheme based on increases over the firms' November 1991 employment level. The scheme takes account of the experience gained during the administration of similar schemes since the mid seventies. The existing employment incentive scheme is targeted at the long term unemployed and early school leavers. The employment incentive scheme has been a feature of our manpower arrangements for some time and I expect it to continue as a permanent feature in the long term. The scheme will continue in parallel with the new employment subsidy scheme.
The job training scheme is a new departure in this country in that we are supporting training on employers' premises for those on the live register for over eight weeks. I can see the scheme becoming a permanent feature of our training arrangements. The scheme should not have major implications for other training arrangements. I would, however, hope to see some participants from Youthreach and similar programmes continue to the new scheme. I also regard the new scheme as an additional and attractive alternative to existing training and employment schemes such as Teamwork.
