Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 11 Jun 1996

Vol. 466 No. 6

Written Answers. - Community Employment Scheme.

Trevor Sargent

Ceist:

132 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the way in which the new regulations and qualifications for community employment schemes are likely to adversely affect arts groups, in particular theatre companies. [12174/96]

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

Community employment or CE is designed primarily to prevent marginalisation among long-term unemployed people whose principal or only source of income is a social welfare payment. Its objective is to provide such person with temporary work experience opportunities together with an element of training that would enhance their prospects of mainstream employment.

Under the CE programme, public sector and voluntary organisations are grant-aided by FÁS in respect of sponsoring a CE project and they in turn benefit in a secondary way by being able to carry out worthwhile work which they could not otherwise undertake. Suitable projects would be those that can be shown to respond to a clearly identified community need and which also develop the work skills of participants, thereby enhancing their prospects of mainstream employment.

To better target CE at the long-term unemployed person, for whom the programme was originally introduced, CE has been split into the following distinct options. The first is the part-time integration option, which is aimed at long-term unemployed people with reasonable prospects of employment and whose prospects of obtaining mainstream employment would be enhanced by participation in the programme. The following are eligible to participate in this option: those over 21 years and on unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance for at least 12 months; those over 21 years and on lone parent's allowance for over 12 months; and special categories such as those referred by the NRB or travellers on the live register or on lone parent's allowance for at least 12 months.

The second is the part-time job option which is aimed at long-term unemployed people with poor employment prospects. The following are eligible to participate in this option: those over 35 years and in receipt of unemployment assistance or unemployment benefit for over three years; those over 35 years and on lone parent's allowance for over three years; and special categories such as those referred by the NRB who are over 35 years or travellers who are over 35 years and on the live register or on lone parent's allowance for at least 12 months.

Participants are generally engaged for a 12 months period for an average of 39 hours per fortnight. However, some participants may be re-engaged for further periods with the agreement of FÁS where such participants are key participants and no other suitable eligible person is available or where the participant would benefit from additional training development. In particular, participants on the part-time job option, who have an annual contract of engagement for twelve months, can have their contract renewed for up to three years.

While I am aware that some arts organisations have expressed concerns that they may find it difficult to recruit artists who have been a full twelve months in receipt of UB/UA, given that employment in the arts is, for the most part, periodic and short-term, I would like to point out that CE is designed primarily to meet the needs of those who are long-term unemployed and was never meant to provide ongoing core funding for the arts which may be funded by other Exchequer or private sources.

The changes to CE are being introduced in order to better target the programme at the long-term unemployed so that they may share in the benefits of economic growth along with other sectors of society. The Deputy will appreciate that, despite the success of the Government's overall economic and employment strategy in creating jobs, recent statistics indicate that such persons are often bypassed in job selection.