Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

The national regeneration programme targets the country's most disadvantaged communities, particularly those defined by extreme social exclusion, unemployment and anti-social behaviour. Regeneration seeks to rebuild those damaged communities by improving not just the physical environment in which people live, but also by investing in the social and economic life of the areas. This holistic, multi-agency approach ensures that regeneration is sustainable, beyond just the initial construction phases, and generates long-term advantages in terms of improvements to housing and the local environment, improved community and social facilities and services, as well as new employment and enterprise opportunities in these areas.

My Department currently supports an ambitious programme of regeneration projects ranging from broad area-based regeneration such as those at Ballymun and Limerick, to smaller, estate-focused projects in inner city locations and regional towns across the country. All of the projects seek to deliver social, economic and physical regeneration with a strong community involvement in the process.

The holistic approach follows through into the creation and support of employment in those areas, through a broad-ranging approach that involves new training places being provided for unemployed members of the community, the use of community employment schemes for estate enhancement elements of regeneration and, in the larger regeneration projects such as in Limerick, specific new enterprise supports. There is also a significant knock-on effect on local employment, both direct and indirect, from the construction contracts included in any regeneration project, not to mention the employment opportunities provided in the newly constructed community and commercial facilities that are often delivered as part of regeneration.

My Department and the local authorities and agencies charged with delivering on regeneration are committed to exploring every opportunity to stimulate local employment opportunities as part of the construction contracts, having due regard to national and EU procurement legislation. Notwithstanding the legislative constraints and the need to avoid restrictive or challengeable contractual practices, it is possible to make provision for construction contracts to contribute to the achievement of certain social policy objectives, for example, providing employment opportunities targeted at long-term unemployed people or providing work placement and other skills training opportunities as part of the contract. I understand, for example, that the contract award criteria for the new housing development at Cliona Park, Moyross, include an objective on employment opportunities for the long-term unemployed.

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