Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 January 2014
105. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Social Protection to outline the progress made through the Pathways to Work strategy; the current long-term unemployment statistics; the current rate of youth unemployment here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3956/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraWe are trying to ascertain the progress that has been made on the Pathways to Work scheme, which is central to the Government's labour activation policy.
In the year to quarter 3, 2013, the long-term unemployment rate declined from 8.9% to 7.6% and the youth unemployment rate declined from over 31% to 26.5%. EUROSTAT estimates that this fell further to under 25% by the end of 2013. New data for 2013 is expected to be available from the Central Statistics Office in late February. The overall unemployment rate, per the CSO, was 12.4% at the end of December last, down from a high of over 15% a few years ago.
Pathways to Work is an ambitious programme to address long-term unemployment. We started in 2012 by rolling out the Intreo approach to improve how we engage with unemployed jobseekers. Some 43 of the Department's local offices are now delivering the Intreo service and this will be extended to all our offices by the end of 2014.
As part of the new approach a total of 130,100 people attended group engagements during 2013, up from 68,600 in 2012; some 156,700 people have attended initial one-to-one personal interviews; and a further 136,900 follow-up one-to-one interviews were also completed. The Department releases a quarterly report on the performance against the Pathways to Work targets and this is available on the Department's website.
I also established a labour market council comprised of employers, labour market experts and advocacy groups to advise the Department in the implementation and further development of such initiatives. The co-operation of employers is essential if we are to continue progress in reducing the live register.
Under Pathways to Work we rolled out several new schemes such as JobBridge, Tús and MOMENTUM and we are prioritising access to these and other schemes to people who are already long-term unemployed or at most risk of becoming long-term unemployed. Data on the number of participants on these schemes is in the following table.
Table : Number of Activation Programme Participants, November 2012 and November 2013
|
- |
Nov-12 |
Nov-13 |
|
|
Back to Work allowance scheme – Employee strand. * |
21 |
11 |
|
|
Back to Work Enterprise allowance scheme – self-employed strand. |
10,884 |
10,152 |
|
|
Short-term Enterprise Allowance ** |
1,138 |
640 |
|
|
Total - Back to Work schemes |
12,043 |
10,803 |
|
|
Part-time Job Incentive |
215 |
313 |
|
|
TÚS - Community Work Placement Initiative |
4,522 |
6,849 |
|
|
JobBridge -National Internship Scheme |
5,503 |
6,174 |
|
|
Total - Other Activation Programmes |
10,240 |
13,336 |
|
|
Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS) |
5,000 |
5,000 |
|
|
Back to Education Allowance *** |
25,819 |
25,162 |
|
|
Total - Back to Education Courses: |
30,819 |
30,162 |
|
|
Community Employment Schemes (excluding Supervisors) |
21,102 |
22,238 |
|
|
FÁS full time training for the unemployed |
9,857 |
9,199 |
|
|
TOTAL |
84,061 |
85,738 |
* This scheme was closed to new applications from 1st May 2009.
** This scheme provides immediate support for someone in receipt of Jobseeker’s Benefit who wants to start a business.
*** BTEA figures include all schemes but participants from JA & JB are not entitled to BTEA during the summer holidays.
I will start on a positive note by congratulating the Minister on her appointment as director of elections for the Labour Party for the European and local elections, if that information is correct. I hope she will have sufficient time to give to her official duties despite these onerous responsibilities. All I can say is that if she can attract the same positive public relations for the Labour Party as she manages to attract for herself then all may not be lost.
As I have stated, Pathways to Work is central to the Government's labour activation policy. We are now three years down the road since its announcement. There is a separate section in the programme for Government on the programme. The number of staff allocated to deal with clients is hopelessly inadequate despite recent increases. The Taoiseach has promised that the programme will take 100,000 long-term unemployed people off the live register. How many people has it actually taken off to date? The Government has now promised to involve the private sector. I read a report under the name of Niall O'Connor in the Irish Independent on 15 December which stated that the Government will not be ready to roll out this programme until the end of the year at the earliest. That would make it four years down the road. Will the Minister agree with me that what has happened to date and what is projected to happen in future demonstrates a lack of seriousness and urgency in respect of this important programme?
There has been progress. Yesterday, for instance, I opened the new Intreo office in Athlone and later in the day I opened the new Intreo office in Longford. They have been well-received in those areas, as they have been throughout the country. Deputy O'Dea was present when I opened the Limerick office late last year. Anyone with an unbiased mind will see that what has happened has amounted to a transformation from what we had under the old Department of Social Welfare, which was a passive pay-out benefits agency.
Now we have a Department that is focused on functioning not just as a benefits payment agency, but, more importantly, as a public employment service charged with getting people back to work.
At the beginning of 2013, services for people who are long-term unemployed were managed by some 300 full-time case officers in the Department who were also operating Intreo and by 150 employment mediators working in local employment services. We have redeployed a further 300 staff to help the long-term unemployed during 2013 and similar numbers will be redeployed again this year. In other words, we have essentially doubled the number of case officers. This initiative comes in a context where the OECD had observed on more than one occasion that we had insufficient staff in place to deal, on an individual basis, with persons who are unemployed. We are now doing that, as shown by the impressive statistics I gave regarding the increase in the number of interviews and the consequent improvement in employment figures.
The one statistic the Minister did not give me is the one in which I am most interested, namely, the number of long-term unemployed people who have been taken out of the system as a direct result of the measures to which she referred. In regard to JobBridge, the Minister indicated recently in reply to a parliamentary question I submitted that 61% of JobBridge participants leave the scheme within five months to take up permanent employment. Has any analysis been done of the types of jobs these people are securing and whether they are appropriate to their qualifications? In the case of those aged under 25, are people simply leaving a situation where they are working 40 hours per week for €3.75 per hour to take up a job where they might be getting €8 or €9 per hour?
Does the Minister agree that much of the anecdotal evidence regarding JobBridge shows that it is not equivalent in any way to an apprenticeship scheme in the properly understood sense of the word and, in many cases, is simply a matter of securing cheap labour for employers? Will she comment on how we arrived at a situation of voluntary internships whereby a person under the age of 25 is paid the princely sum of €2.75 per hour for a 40-hour week?
I gave the Deputy the statistics on long-term unemployment at the beginning of my reply. Perhaps he missed that part. The long-term unemployment rate fell from 8.9% at the beginning of 2013 to 7.6% at the end of the year.
How much of that reduction is accounted for by participation in the various departmental schemes?
People in long-termed unemployment, who are identified as being more than one year out of work, are the most difficult to place in employment. The reduction in the rate of long-term unemployment - although still too high, it is falling - is an indication of the Department's success in this regard.
In regard to the numbers going on from JobBridge to secure further employment, the figure of 61% was not identified by my Department but by Indecon, a very well regarded Irish and international economic consultancy, in an independent report. That placement rate is among the best in Europe. To clarify, JobBridge is not an apprenticeship scheme. Apprenticeship is a specific programme of learning, training and education, which is delivered partly on the job and partly in an educational setting. JobBridge, on the other hand, is a work experience programme. Unfortunately, as a result of the condition in which Fianna Fáil in government left this country, we had a situation where people coming out of college with very good qualifications had no prospect of employment.
Now they are making tea and photocopying.
These highly-skilled people were unable to obtain employment because the Government of which Deputy O'Dea was a member never prioritised getting them into work.
