Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

One of the major challenges facing us as we emerge from the recession is presented by intergenerational unemployment. We do not have sufficient data to tackle this issue which can also have a geographical dimension. What are the delegates views on this issue?

Age discrimination is evident as we emerge from the recession and will become a major issue. Age fear is also an issue, by which I mean someone in his or her 30s will not necessarily want to employ someone aged 45 years or more because he or she will have much more experience of life and employment than the employer. We need to break down this barrier.

Of the six jobs I have had in my career, only two are still available. I started off in flour milling and the production of animal feed. All flour mills have closed. I was also a postman, an occupation that is about to go by the wayside, and later worked as a telephone technician, a job that has completely changed. We must tie together lifelong learning and sustainable employment because someone leaving college, university or school today will probably have at least six careers.

On the issue of constant reassessment, what was good during the recession is not necessarily good now. This applies to the VAT rate applicable to the hospitality sector, which results in the State forgoing revenue of more than €300 million each year. We must ensure we get bang for our buck, which means equality of employment and a return to the market. We are fast approaching the point where we should consider winding down this measure and investing the €300 million in tax forgone in another area. I ask the delegates to comment on this.

We always need to keep on reassessing what we are doing and whether it is right.

There were a number of activations measures and we can look at community employment, Tús and Gateway schemes. They are quite relevant and were successful during the recession. There is a possibility we should revisit those. Community employment was originally set up by a former Deputy, Ruairí Quinn, going back to the 1980s and it has changed and moved. I am interested in the number of people in community employment and who have real jobs. We should reassess what is real work and what is training to move on. That is why I have lumped community employment with Tús and Gateway, as Tús has no training element and it was purely to keep people connected with employment and carrying out useful functions.

JobBridge and JobsPlus need to be considered together. JobsPlus is an incentive to an employer to take somebody on. Perhaps we should look at redesigning that area and the incentive with the training. There is the possibility that somebody who is long-term unemployed will not be taken on. There must be recognition that people have challenges in getting employment and the employer has challenges relating to training and experience. JobsPlus was a cash incentive targeting that area. Maybe that should be expanded. I have looked at the Economic and Social Research Institute report and its examination of back-to-education matters. In some ways during the recession, it was about trying to keep people connected with employment. As I stated at another committee meeting, we often hear what we do not like and then we look for the reasons behind the results. Who went back to education and were we giving some people something to do that might not have been suitable? It was not misdirection as there were other channels but now we are in a better position, should we look at a better directed approach? Back-to-education measures may not always be suitable for everyone but those who go back to education should have a quality experience. Will outcomes be very different?