Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 24 Jun 1999

Vol. 507 No. 1

Written Answers. - Community Employment Schemes.

Noel Ahern

Ceist:

44 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will give details of the extra payment of £25 per week made available to participants on certain FÁS courses in recent months; if this payment will be extended to those on community employment schemes which also have a training element involved; and if it will be extended to those aged over 45 or 50 on community employment schemes as many of these cannot be retrained for the job positions currently available in view of the fact that they perform valuable work on community employment schemes which needs to be recognised and encouraged. [16249/99]

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Ms Harney)

A training bonus of £25 per week for long-term unemployed people on mainstream FÁS training courses was introduced on a pilot basis with effect from 19 April 1999. The bonus is payable in addition to the trainees normal training allowance.

Trainees who were on the live register and in receipt of unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance for 12 months or more before commencing training with FÁS are eligible for the bonus.

I have no plans to extend the training bonus to participants on community employment schemes. However, people who progress to FÁS training from community employment schemes or the job initiative programme will be eligible for the bonus, provided they completed a minimum of 12 months on community employment or job initiative prior to commencing training.

Community employment is a transitional programme which is intended to re-introduce long-term unemployed people to the labour market. However, there is clear evidence that people who participate on mainstream FÁS training courses, which have closer links to the labour market, significantly improve their chances of getting a job.