Jimmy Devins (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

FÁS as an agency of my Department operates two employment schemes, community employment and job initiative.

Community employment is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a fixed term basis. The programme helps unemployed people to progress to the open labour market by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to work routine and assists them in enhancing-developing their technical and personal skills.

The job initiative programme provides full-time employment for people who are 35 years of age or over, unemployed for five or more years and in receipt of social welfare payments during that period. The main purpose of the programme is to assist long-term unemployed people to prepare for work opportunities by providing participants with work experience, training and development opportunities.

There are no plans to create another employment programme. However, FÁS is working to quickly respond to the changing employment market. In regard to the construction sector, where we have witnessed a substantial number of redundancies during the past 12 months, the Government will continue to work with all of the relevant stakeholders to ensure timely and satisfactory responses to the adjustments taking place. This will include the continued provision of a range of training opportunities for those who lose their jobs in the construction sector. FÁS will also provide retraining to redundant workers in emerging areas of the construction sector which are experiencing growth such as environmental related activity; compliance and regulatory related work; waste management activity; and sustainable energy systems installation. The Government will also continue to promote access for mobile workers to construction jobs elsewhere in the EU.

As regards planned capital infrastructure projects, I would expect that it would be open to unemployed workers to apply for any vacant positions with the relevant contractors.

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