Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

I propose all city and county development boards should be constituted as employment taskforces for the duration of this economic crisis. The reason for my proposal is that the response to the recent job losses, for example, at Dell in Limerick was to establish an employment taskforce. When Deputy Rabbitte was a Minister of State, he established job taskforces in response to job losses in Tallaght and other places. Rather than waiting to establish a jobs taskforce in response to company closures, it might be a better approach to have the taskforce already established. The make-up of an employment taskforce is the same as city and country development boards with all the agencies involved being on both. These boards would be ideally placed, meaning new organisations would not have to be set up. The South County Dublin Development Board has already set itself up as an employment support forum. This is the model for other boards across the country.

The job losses in south County Dublin, the local authority area in which I reside and represent, are the equivalent of several Dell closures. This is being mirrored in many parts of the country. Jobs lost here and there add up to sizeable numbers. There is, however, not the same response if it were one single factory closure. The county development boards would be able to ensure every responsible organisation with which they engage, such as the county councils, the VECs, FÁS, the IDA and the Departments of Social and Family Affairs and Education and Science, would come up with proposals and initiatives to support local job creation and jobseekers. A board could ask, for example, what its county council could do to support existing businesses, to maintain existing jobs and to expand the workforce. The local FÁS office could examine what it could do to provide opportunities for jobseekers through training, education and employment schemes. Other organisations could examine the local demographic profiles and match them with the type of jobs we need to create for the future, particularly in sustainable and environmentally clean alternative energy.

An OECD report suggested community employment schemes should not be expanded but alternative schemes examined. I would, however, expand the existing community employment schemes. In 1995, more than 40,000 places were available on community employment schemes while now there are only 20,000 places. Unemployment has returned as a major problem, with graduates, construction workers and those who worked in manufacturing joining the dole queues.

When I left college, I worked on what was then called a social employment scheme in the administration and clerical areas. Eventually, I obtained a permanent job, trained further and became a solicitor. We need to provide similar opportunities for people who are graduating now, otherwise they will be obliged to emigrate or go on the dole. I do not necessarily believe that people on community employment schemes would be paid more than they would obtain in the form of jobseeker's benefit or allowance. However, they would at least be able to go to work. People want to develop their CVs, obtain work experience and learn new skills. It is important that a higher level of training be provided on such schemes than has been the case in the past.

An article in today's edition of The Irish Times states that a report compiled in England shows that college is the healthiest option for school leavers during times of recession. In other words, it is much better for them to attend college rather than go on the dole. The Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, recently made the point that the abolition of third level fees did nothing to improve access to college. The opposite is the case. HEA reports show that, since the Labour Party abolished fees in 1998, participation rates in third level education have improved among the members of every socioeconomic group.

The Government should give consideration to the serious damage it will do if it reintroduces third level fees. School leavers will be discouraged from attending college and will end up on the dole. As already stated, it is much better for people to be in employment — which would be ideal — attending college or on a community employment scheme.

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