Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The Deputy misunderstands what the task forces are supposed to do. They are established following major closures to assist workers, in particular, to access training or find alternative employment. Huge logistical issues arise for workers and their families after a major closure. The view of the trade union movement and all those who have participated is that the task forces have been extraordinarily successful. Many of the forces have had a wider remit to make recommendations. For example, the Donegal task force was asked to suggest what needs to happen to encourage investment in that county. The recommendations related to all aspects of government, such as infrastructure and education, as well as issues relating to my Department.

Some of the task forces are still in place. They were not established as alternative State job creation agencies. Over 400,000 additional people are in work, compared to 1997. Almost 45,000 more people have joined the workforce in the past year. The economy is continuing to generate new, high-quality, alternative jobs. In common with the most successful economies in the world, we go through times when jobs are lost and others are created because some companies cannot survive, restructure or scale back their operations. Task forces have an important role to play in respect of such logistical issues.

We have not done a cost benefit analysis of the task forces. The actual direct cost of the forces was negligible because they are generally composed of individuals who participated on a voluntary basis, staff from enterprise development agencies or representatives of local authority management. None of the individuals were paid for their work on the task forces. The only expenses that were incurred related to consultancy, for example, or the hiring of premises. I can give the Deputy figures about the actual costs. We did not do a cost benefit analysis, which is a different issue.

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