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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 11 Nov 1999

Vol. 510 No. 5

Adjournment Debate. - Job Initiative.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this important matter. There is only six weeks left before Christmas and there is nothing surprising about the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment's failure to provide a commitment to the people on the whole-time job initiative scheme. It is causing great distress among the 2,875 workers on the scheme and, in particular, the 1,000 participants whose contracts expire at the end of the year. They are rightly concerned that in the early days of the new millennium they will be in danger of returning to the same dole office they left three years ago when they took up employment under the scheme. At least back then most of these workers did not have expectations about how employment could impact on the quality of their lives but now that they have, work means something to them and the uncertainty of their future is hugely distressing.

I am extremely puzzled at the handling of this programme by the Minister. I have serious doubts about bringing in conventional consultants, such as Deloitte & Touche, to assess the efficacy of such a scheme. Such consultants do not know very much about such a programme and the diversity of jobs, tasks and projects that participants undertake. I have been pressing the Minister since last March to make clear how she intends to use the scheme in future. It is the middle of November and I still have not received a response. I was advised, for example, in response to a recent parliamentary question that she would make a decision on the jobs initiative scheme in consultation with the relevant social partners. Yesterday the Labour Party was informed by her on the Order of Business that such a decision would be made next week. However, as I understand it, she has not been in contact with them.

The jobs initiative scheme, similar to community employment, has not just impacted positively on the lives of the long-term unemployed. The benefits which accrued to local communities is also evident and for this reason the Minister can ill afford to further procrastinate on the future of this programme. The scheme was put in place three years ago and focused on the long-term unemployed. Eligibility requirements included that the participants should be over 35 years of age and unemployed for five years or more. The scheme guaranteed three years employment at the going rate for the job with different sponsors.

The scheme has been a considerable success and I do not say that because of my involvement in setting it up. It brought back into the workforce a category of people who had been unemployed for so long that most despaired of obtaining work again. I do not claim that the scheme is perfect but it has done wonders for the self-confidence of almost 2,900 people and their hopes for the future. I was disappointed that the training component of the scheme is not uniform and has not always been structured as rigorously as it might be. I also hoped for a higher level of placement in permanent employment but, ironically, that is partially due to the fact that many participants enjoy the jobs they are doing. In other cases, sponsors have not thought out sufficiently a role for participants.

However, the biggest question mark hangs over what the Government is planning for these people when these valuable schemes finish. Instead of considering altering and terminating parts of the programme it is crucial that the Government invests further in it making it more relevant to the needs of the participants and the communities they serve. I have pressed the Minister since last March to be clear about this because there are different categories of work involved, some of which are capable of transfer to the social economy unit which she has planned. I ask her to put people's minds at rest about this as speedily as possible.

I thank Deputy Rabbitte for raising this issue. Deloitte & Touche consultants were commissioned by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in April 1999 to undertake a review of the effectiveness of the job initiative programme against its objectives on reaching the end of the first phase of its operations on 31 December 1999. The objectives of the job initiative programme, which was launched as a pilot initiative by the Government in 1996, are to provide assistance in the form of an active labour market intervention to the long-term unemployed for whom access to work is extremely limited and to make a significant contribution to local development in confined urban areas with weak local labour markets. The programme is specifically aimed at people who are over 35 years and registered as unemployed or on lone parent's allowance for more than five years.

The programme was originally confined to six urban partnership areas in the cities of Cork, Limerick and Dublin and it was extended to all 38 partnership areas in 1998. The total number of persons qualifying for the programme is approximately 13,500 and a total of 2,875 places were allocated to the programme in 1999.

The consultants' report was furnished recently to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and following examination by her Department, the Tánaiste requested that it be published and made available to the social partners for their examination. This is likely to take place tomorrow. The consultants' conclusions on the operation of the job initiative programme are generally supportive. However, they have made a number of recommendations on how the operation of the programme might be improved and made more effective. They recommend that participants from phase 1 of the programme, who are due to complete their three year term on 31 December 1999, should receive a six months extension.

The Tánaiste accepts that this recommendation is necessary to enable these participants to engage more actively in seeking alternative employment opportunities in the open labour market than they may have had heretofore and in order to remove uncertainty for these participants and their managing agents, particularly at this time of the year.

Other recommendations contained in the report, of which there are a substantial number, will be the subject of consultations with the social partners over the coming weeks, as previously indicated by the Tánaiste. At the end of this consultations phase the Tánaiste intends to make final decisions on the operation of the programme.

The evaluation by the consultants' report was carried out under the following terms of reference: comment-analysis on whether the programme remains an appropriate programme having regard to current state of the labour market and likely future trends; a review of the assumptions underlying the targeted groups; whether the programme is successful in meeting its objectives and suggestions as to how it might be improved or better targeted; and an assessment of whether the programme provides value for money to the Exchequer.

The consultants' conclusions and recommendations with regard to the terms of reference take into account consultations with all the relevant organisations associated with the programme, including FÁS, as the operational agency for the programme, area partnerships, managing agents and project groups, trainers and other interested groups. These consultations have enabled the consultants to establish qualitative and attitudinal information on all the main aspects of the programme and to identify the key issues for examination.

I am confident the report and the outcome of the consultations with the social partners over the coming weeks will provide a firm basis for sound decisions on the future operation of the job initiative programme.

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