Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. There has been a substantial reduction in staff numbers at local authority level. I have discussed this with the Minister, Deputy Hogan, on many occasions. Some local authorities have lost up to 25% of their staff over the last four or five years. That has resulted in huge gaps in services. Local authorities in some areas are finding it difficult to mobilise crews of outdoor staff. It has been clear recently that there are shortages in many areas, including housing maintenance, libraries, parks and - critically in the context of the recent storms - road maintenance. The existing staff that work for local authorities across the country did Trojan work during the storm, especially in light of the resources that are available to them. I know from the few counties I have contact with that absolutely powerful work was done by short-staffed local authorities.

As I have mentioned to the Minister previously, routine maintenance has been absent in some areas. A small amount of routine maintenance - clearing from gullies and culverts the branches of trees that have been washed downstream - would have prevented some areas from being flooded recently. We need to start looking at preventative maintenance in this country. The staff shortage to which I have referred explains why local authorities are being forced to take on 3,000 people under the Gateway scheme. We saw the same thing when they took on 836 people under JobBridge placements. It has been argued that this does not result in displacement. I will explain what happens. When a worker retires at the age of 65, or 66 as it is now, he or she goes out and is not replaced. There is displacement through natural wastage, which is an awful term that is used to describe retirement. If there are fewer positions and fewer workers, there is the same end result. It does not make any sense. The staff in the lower grades, as they are called, and the outdoor staff provide critical services in local authority areas.

Anyone who took the trouble to read the full Sinn Féin motion will be aware that it recommends that proper training schemes, alternative activation programmes and intensive community employment schemes should be put in place. I was involved in running two of these schemes in the late 1990s. One of them, which was organised by a branch of the Conference of Religious of Ireland, was run on a "rate for the job" basis. It was the same rate as community employment, but the difference was that one got the rate for the job. In other words, if one was working side by side with another worker who was getting €15 an hour, one worked for the number of hours needed to clock up one's total pay to that level. The critical aspect of this scheme was that people got third-level qualifications out of it. Almost all of them got jobs out of it. The scheme had a huge success rate. I want to highlight this. Sinn Féin wants to see good activation and training programmes. We want educational opportunities to be afforded to people. I have been involved in this area in the past. I have seen its benefits. I benefitted from it myself. I can see how it works. I just think this is where we need to be going.

Participants in this scheme will receive €20 a week. It costs money to go to work. One has to travel to work, bring a lunch and pay PRSI. When all of that is taken away, some people will lose money. We do not want to disadvantage people who are already at the pin of their collar. We want to help such people. That is what the Sinn Féin motion is about. The problem with the Gateway scheme is like the problem with the Tús scheme. While the community employment scheme has some good aspects, Sinn Féin would argue strongly that it should be improved along the lines I have set out. The problem with this scheme, like the Tús scheme, is that it does not do anything about activation. The embargo is making activation in local authority employment impossible. It is good that the Minister is here as it gives me an opportunity to remind him of the need to lift the embargo. I appreciate that the state of the public finances means it is impossible for recruitment to be opened fully. It would make sense at this stage for the embargo to be lifted gradually in crucial areas, such as the local authority sector and the HSE. I ask the Minister to consider that. I would like the Government to withdraw this scheme and put in place a proper intensive training scheme with proper activation measures that treats people with a little dignity. These people have had their noses rubbed in it over the last three to five years. They have been ground down. They come into my constituency office all the time. We need to help them.

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