Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 2 October 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection

Job Creation and Mortgage Support Schemes: Discussion with Department of Social Protection

2:15 pm

Photo of Brendan  RyanBrendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On the Gateway initiative, I agree with those who have said that the €20 payment is a difficulty, apart altogether from the tax issues that Deputy Ó Snodaigh raised. A person living in my constituency, participating in the scheme and travelling from Balbriggan to Swords, for example, would end up in a minus position because of travel costs.

The witnesses made reference to monitoring the scheme with trade union support. Has trade union support around the country been generally positive? It seems to me that it has been. A question was posed earlier on local authorities and I wish to know if Fingal County Council has participated thus far. On the question of Garda vetting, it appears that such vetting would not be required for many of the jobs on offer. Is that the case? The witnesses also mentioned development opportunities within the councils and referred to training programmes such as Safe Pass and so forth. Beyond the basic training to do the various jobs, what kind of training opportunities are available to participants? Is there any limit on the number of participants per local authority? On the issue of gender, I had some initial concerns about this scheme because it seemed that it would present more opportunities for men than for women. In that context, are there enough opportunities for women under the scheme?

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