Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Seeing as the Minister is so interested in the Assembly deliberations, Sinn Féin representatives on the employment and learning committee have repeatedly called on the Minister to introduce a properly waged, community-based employment scheme to give unemployed people a properly waged position and to allow them to carry out work for the benefit of the local community.

In reply to the bemused Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation whose comments last night were bizarre, there are good activation schemes which I have acknowledged. They are not just ones that have been introduced by this Government. They include ones introduced in the past. Well-funded community employment schemes are one of the key elements in job activation but the Minister should not forget that his Government has already cut the training and education budget for those same community employment schemes. Shame on the Government. We also welcomed the introduction of JobsPlus, which is the subsidy given for the creation of full-time paid positions, but the Minister will not even listen to that. There are activation schemes that are based on meaningful accredited training as in the case of community employment and much more could be done to enhance community employment and equal pay for equal work in the case of JobsPlus. We have supported the likes of Springboard and Momentum in most cases. They are relatively good activation schemes. However, the bad activation schemes and the ones this Government has been responsible for - Tús, JobBridge and now Gateway - are not good activation schemes because they intend to punish the victims of the economic crash who will be targeted and compulsorily sent on these schemes.

This Government has misread the mood of the public because this scheme is a step too far even for those whom the Government says might have sat on the fence to date with regard to JobBridge. Even for them, Gateway is very difficult to swallow because it is low-cost hard labour. It is workfare and I make no apology for using that terminology. Deputy Pearse Doherty has outlined how the councillors in Donegal have already acted on behalf of the public and rejected the Gateway scheme and this will happen elsewhere. I urge the Government, backbenchers and particularly the Labour Party to do likewise and back off the unemployed. Get off their backs, set up proper schemes and give them training opportunities instead of scams like this which is workfare. It is an absolute disgrace that any party in Government but particularly the Labour Party would pursue such a scheme. The Gateway scheme has no structured training, is compulsory, displaces jobs and is a breach of international law, namely, the Forced Labour Convention. I demand that this Government look at that before it proceeds any further. Otherwise it will probably end up in an international court. A good activation scheme is one that does not exploit and displace existing jobs. A good activation scheme is one that first and foremost offers meaningful training and experience to the participants, enhances their future employability and allows jobseekers to apply. Shame on the Government. I appeal to Members to vote for our motion.

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