Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I do not wish to be like a dog with a bone, but I wish to return to the issue of the local authorities. I appreciate what the Minister stated about the Nordic countries. My wife is from that part of the world and I am extremely familiar with the ethos in these countries in the context of training provision and learning.

I accept that education and training are not the responsibility of the Minister's Department and neither is job creation. I commend the Department on the broad view it is taking in that it is not only issuing cheques but, progressively and productively, it is making sure that people are upskilling and it is giving them every opportunity to so do. I genuinely commend the move by the Minister's Department in that direction as well as the job creation aspect of it.

One of the biggest challenges facing a local authority such as Cork County Council, and I know the same challenge does not face the Dublin local authorities, is road maintenance. There is a great opportunity for the Jobstart scheme to assist in addressing this issue. The reality is that there will be very little upskilling for people who engage in that type of manual work. Roads may not be an issue for the Dublin local authorities. It is important to recognise the opportunity to assist in this respect with some financial recompense as opposed to simply saying that these people will benefit because the reality is that they will not. People are happy to partake in manual work and there may not be upskilling opportunities for them. That is my motivation in raising this issue and I ask the Minister to consider that suggestion.

We have briefing material on "Ensuring Work Pays" from the Department, but it is quite basic. Employers tell us that they cannot get people to take up jobs and that they have advertised them but have not had success. The Minister will have heard all these stories and I will not bore her by repeating them. I would be interested in getting more information on this area from the Department. I agree that many of these claims are myths but it is hard to convince employers that people are not better off not working and that they are not all at home, drawing every benefit under the sun, with no interest in working and having a great life. I note the Minister's figure that 74% claim for themselves only. Would the Department be willing to give us a few case studies of families, for example, Mr. A, who is 42 years old and married with three children, and the sum total of benefits he gets. It is an educational adventure we have to go on and we have to let the employers know that there is a happy medium and that the reality is different from the perception that prevails. That perception needs to be challenged and we as members have a responsibility to challenge it. I would appreciate any assistance we could get from the Department on that.