Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 15: To ask the Minister for the Environment; Community and Local Government the efforts he has made to ensure that any contracts issued for regeneration works, like those undertaken by Limerick Regeneration Agency, will have a social element incorporated that will ensure local employment is provided to local persons. [15636/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

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.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am pleased to hear that some of the long-term unemployed will be looked after. This has been a bone of contention in many communities where regeneration has taken place, that the contracting of local people has always been ruled out. We have been told time and again that it is due to EU directives. The Minister for Regional Development, Conor Murphy, was able to ensure that projects undertaken in the North did involve local contracts. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that we can get contracts awarded to local people. In Ballymun in particular local labour was not directly employed in many of the schemes and those employed were generally not local people. There was a spin-off in terms of different types of jobs but the direct employment of people on building sites was always a big bone of contention.

I accept what the Minister said. I am pleased to hear that some unemployed people will be looked after in Limerick.

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

We are somewhat constrained by EU and Irish legislation in terms of the principle of equal treatment which provides that companies may not be discriminated against on the basis of their nationality or location. Procurement legislation and guidelines provide for that in all public contracts and contracting authorities are precluded from awarding contracts solely on the basis that work should be provided by local firms or other similarly restrictive clauses. That said, I accept the Deputy's point. Examples of conditions where one can have a clear social or environmental impact must be set out in advertisements.

Dublin City Council apply a requirement that any job vacancy beyond a contractor's core workforce be recruited where practicable from the local FÁS office. The Limerick Regeneration Agency and Dublin City Council both promote the employment of long-term unemployed people as part of their contracts. As Deputy Ellis is aware, local contractors win contracts, which can help the situation. In Waterford, six contractors from the south east of the country are delivering nine regeneration work projects. In Cranmore in Sligo nine local contractors have been employed directly or indirectly to deliver on a range of regeneration works from demolition to refurbishment to estate works. In the Mitchels regeneration project in Tralee two local contractors have been awarded construction and demolition contracts. In Cork city the recently completed €30 million project at Knocknaheeny Block D was delivered by a local contractor. That is good news but I accept Deputy Ellis's point that where possible we should employ local people who are unemployed. I would be a strong advocate of that within the confines of the system in which we must work.