Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 26 Oct 1995

Vol. 457 No. 6

Adjournment Debate. - Long-Term Unemployment.

Mr. T. Kitt

I welcome the Minister to the House to discuss this important issue. Despite the fact that we have had strong growth in employment in recent times, the long-term unemployed are being alienated and ostracised by the Government. Radical, innovative and targeted policies are required. The Government should treat this crisis as a national emergency.

Half those on the live register are long-term unemployed. In Dublin, 51 per cent of the unemployed have been out of work for more than 12 months and 26 per cent have been out of work for more than three years. I was pleased the Government appeared to be at last giving this problem the attention it deserves, but I can only describe the ministerial smoked salmon lunch summit on unemployment today as a cosmetic exercise.

Since this Government came to office there has been total confusion about who is responsible for employment policies. As spokesman for labour affairs I have had difficulty identifying whether it was Minister Bruton, Minister of State Rabbitte or Minister of State Fitzgerald who has responsibility for it. The Minister, Deputy De Rossa, entered the scene today and made new announcements. Has he taken over responsibility for unemployment?

The Government has failed miserably in not delivering on its promise to set up a local employment service to co-ordinate a range of counselling, training, work experience and job placement services for the long-term unemployed. Last March £6 million was allocated to set up this valuable service which would ensure the long-term unemployed would be made aware of jobs available locally and which would provide quality training. It is a national scandal that, having announced the scheme earlier this year, the Government has not yet set up this service. The Minister for Enterprise and Employment must cut through the red tape and ensure the employment service is put in place speedily.

The CSO labour force survey gives grounds for optimism on the jobs front and vindicates the economic policies pursued by the last Fianna Fáil Government. Between April 1994 and April 1995 the number of people employed increased by 49,000. I am heartened to note that the much maligned private sector has proved it can deliver on jobs if given the opportunity. The non-agricultural private sector is clearly the engine for growth in the economy, providing 37,000 jobs in the 12 month period April 1994 to April 1995. That sector must be encouraged to continue to expand. I urge the Minister for Finance to cut employment taxes in the forthcoming budget and to continue to restrain growth in public expenditure. They are the policies that must be pursued.

Clear targeting must take place in regard to the long-term unemployed. The mixture of ideological positions in this Government has become very apparent, with the Minister for Social Welfare, Deputy De Rossa, entering the fray today. Lack of cohesion and urgency is evident at Government level. I call on the Minister for Enterprise and Employment to ensure that those unemployed for 12 months and longer will not be ignored and excluded in terms of employment policies.

Minister for Enterprise and Employment (Mr. R. Bruton)

I am disappointed the Deputy is trivialising this debate by cheap political rhetoric. Everybody knows that when Fianna Fáil was in government the number of long-term unemployed increased by 25 per cent, a startling increase, and to suggest, as the Deputy did, that this crisis has suddenly occurred is untrue. Before indicting people for not holding special meetings relating to the long-term unemployed, the Deputy should look to his own benches.

The figures published this week are very encouraging. They disprove the long-standing critique of Irish economic performance by showing we are capable of turning good growth performance into real employment. We have enjoyed unprecedented growth this year, with an increase of 4 per cent, or 49,000, in the number of people at work. There has been a net increase in employment of almost 130,000 in the last five years. The labour force survey, the internationally recognised way of measuring unemployment, shows a decline in unemployment of 26,000 in the 12 months to April 1995. It is desirable that we would have more regularly and timely labour force statistics. We cannot rely on measures of unemployment that are purely eligibility related, which unfortunately is the position with the live register. The labour force survey gives a much truer picture.

While this year's reduction of 26,000 in the number unemployed is very encouraging, the unemployment issue remains a very serious one. As the Deputy pointed out, 48 per cent of registered unemployed are long-term unemployed. Not only is the size of this group alarming but the disadvantage faced by them is great. Figures indicate that almost half of them have no formal educational qualifications. The prospects of people on long-term unemployment finding work are extremely low — 25 per cent or probably fewer find employment within a year. That is a permanent feature of the system. We must address ways to improve opportunities for the long-term unemployed, for whom present opportunities are very bleak.

The Government is tackling long-term unemployment through a range of targeted measures including the large scale community employment programme, the back to work allowance scheme and various training programmes. These are supplemented with the progressive introduction of a more intensive local employment service with particular focus on guidance and counselling. I make no apologies to the Deputy for the approach taken in carefully putting this service in place so that it genuinely provides opportunities for the long-term unemployed. Nobody would thank us for putting in place on a rushed basis what would be seen as a local bureaucracy that is not capable of delivering, not properly locally based and not capable of adding real value. We might be able to say we have spent £X million, but nobody would be happy and in the longer term we would not get value from it.

Recent budgetary initiatives have been aimed at reducing the cost of employing workers. These measures have increased the incentive to work by improving the take home pay of the lowest paid workers. Schemes such as the family income supplement and the reduction in social security taxes for the low paid have been part of the strategy to improve incentives for the unemployed. These measures represent a concerted effort to improve the possibilities of the long-term unemployed re-entering the labour market. The Government is very conscious that while a wide range of measures have been implemented, long-term unemployment remains persistently high. We are committed to intensifying our efforts to assist this group, which is one of the most disadvantaged in the labour market.

Further reductions in unemployment will be achieved through a redoubling of our job creation efforts. It is critically important that we adopt the measures necessary to sustain the economic success of our economy and a key way to address that issue is to concentrate on competitiveness.

The Government at a special meeting today considered the unacceptably high level of long-term unemployment. The longer people are unemployed the more difficult it is for them to find work. The Government renewed its commitment to ensure that economic and employment growth benefit the long-term unemployed, including those living in unemployment blackspots. It also considered ways to support the recruitment of the long-term unemployed. The meeting provided a context within which the Government will consider specific proposals in the coming months to put in place further measures to stimulate employment growth and tackle long-term unemployment.

Specifically the Government decided to draw up and implement a comprehensive strategy embracing all policy areas with clearly defined objectives to deal with all aspects of the unemployment problem, particularly long-term unemployment. We must strive in particular to improve access to new job opportunities for the long-term unemployed. We must find better ways of removing potential impediments which severely limit access by the long-term unemployed to the labour market. This may require a range of strategies including, for example, better targeting of existing schemes, better means of progression into labour market programmes and consideration of the special problems of young people, the tax on social welfare and the delivery mechanisms we have adopted. The Government has instructed the Department of the Taoiseach, the Office of the Tánaiste and the Department of Enterprise and Employment to oversee the preparation and implementation of this strategy and to prepare regular progress reports for Government on the actions taken to implement it.