Vol. 464 No. 1
8 Mrs. O'Rourke asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment if his attention has been drawn to the recent comments of the former Taoiseach, Dr. FitzGerald on the long-term unemployment crisis; the plans, if any, he has to introduce the local employment service on a countrywide basis in view of these comments; and if he will make a statement regarding his plans to tackle long-term unemployment. [7632/96]
I presume the Deputy is referring to the article in The Irish Times by Dr. Garret FitzGerald on 23 March 1996, which I have noted. Dr FitzGerald's article is thoughtful and, as one would expect, contains sound analysis and some thought provoking ideas.
Dr. FitzGerald has observed the good progress we are making in job creation and in reducing the number of people out of work. He quotes the sharp fall in unemployment as measured by the labour force survey. Between 1993 and 1996, an estimated fall in unemployment of 46,000 has occurred which is bringing the Irish rate of unemployment closer to the European average. In contrast, he points out that the live register does not reflect this fall and comments on the inappropriateness of the live register as a measure of the number of people out of work and seeking employment. However, he also draws attention to the disturbing features of Irish unemployment, namely the high proportion of people who have been out of work for a long period.
The Government shares his analysis and has been responding to the particular problem of long-term unemployment through a variety of targeted measures. These include the development of a more employment friendly taxation and social welfare regime and the introduction in this year's budget of a series of precisely targeted employment measures, which include: the splitting of the community employment programme into two distinct options, a part-time integration option and a part-time jobs option and the better targeting of the programme at the long-term unemployed; the introduction of a new pilot whole-time jobs option; the introduction of a new recruitment subsidy scheme called "Jobstart"; the introduction of a new work experience programme called "Work-Place"; the introduction of special measures for 18 and 19 year olds; the extension of back to work allowance scheme; and the introduction of retention of certain benefits for those returning to work.
The establishment of the local employment service also represents an important component of the Government's response to tackling long-term unemployment. The distinctive additional elements of this service, in providing an individually tailored progression path towards employment for its clients and in ensuring that there is a well co-ordinated employment service delivery at local level, should yield real benefits in terms of securing employment for long-term unemployed persons as the service develops. The fact that it is initially launched in 14 areas, including the major unemployment black spots in the country means that it is first being targeted where it is most crucially needed.
As I already informed the House on 28 February last, my plans for 1996 are that the local employment service should be consolidated in these 14 areas and subject to an initial evaluation before the service is expanded on a planned basis to other areas. In this way we can ensure that the service is developed to maximum effect for its client population.
Training is another important component in any measure of active labour market interventions aimed at addressing the problems of long-term unemployment, given the strong link between low levels of education attainment and long-term unemployment. I will be addressing this problem in the White Paper on human resource development which I will be submitting to the Government shortly for consideration.
I thank the Minister for his long answer. Dr. Garret FitzGerald wrote a newspaper article on 23 March 1996 which stated that long-term unemployment is a most disturbing feature. He stated that, irrespective of what measures are being undertaken in the area of employment, what is most disturbing is the continuing accelerated growth of long-term unemployment, a subject to which we will return on another occasion. The Government has been nearly a year and a half in office and long-term unemployment continues to accelerate. I await the document containing some magic formula, but we should not hold our breath.
If the Deputy is suggesting that nothing can be done about long-term unemployment and that we should abandon policies to tackle it——
The Minister is doing nothing about it.
——I would not share her view. The Government has been particularly active in addressing that problem and I gave a lengthy reply because I thought that in asking what we intend to do to address it the Deputy was interested in some of the measures we are adopting. We are adopting a range of measures which will provide a more focused service for the long-term unemployed, particularly in the targeted black spots where the problem is concentrated. Apart from training and development ideas which we will bring forward, we will introduce a large number of targeted interventions to reform the services provided for the long-term unemployed.
I agree with the tenor of Dr. FitzGerald's article. Does the Minister agree with it?
Absolutely. I welcome the Deputy's conversion to supporting a former leader of our party and a former Taoiseach. His analysis is always sound and his drawing attention to long-term unemployment——
The Minister is not addressing it.
——long ignored by the Deputy's party when in Government, is worth while.
Dr. FitzGerald said that the Minister is not doing anything about it. I am delighted the Minister agrees with Dr. FitzGerald.
