Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

With the permission of the House I wish to share time with Deputy Joanna Tuffy.

At the outset, I thank the Fine Gael party for tabling this motion. It is very timely and concentrates the minds of people in the House on the single most important issue facing us, that is, the very significant problem of unemployment and all the difficulties it brings in its wake. The Labour Party supports the broad thrust of the motion and we believe it contains many worthwhile elements.

I will refer to some things the Government should do as a matter of urgency and to the question of jobs, job creation, job protection and job sharing. The whole world of work must be at the top of the Government's agenda. Regrettably, this has not been the case and increasingly in recent times we have seen the Government devote more and more time to shoring up its own position, sorting out problems between Government partners and firefighting within the Government coalition. In recent times, for one reason or another there has not been the required clear focus on jobs.

In January of last year, the Government promised a jobs summit. Clearly, a jobs summit is urgently required. It was badly needed in January of last year when the Government promised it to the social partners, and if it was necessary early last year, it is all the more urgent and essential that such a summit take place now. We must include all the players involved in industry, job creation, the various groups working with unemployed people, investors and the political system. We must bring together all these people to brainstorm and to come up with achievable proposals which can make a difference in creating employment. In the absence of this long-promised summit the President of the country has taken an initiative in this area, which is welcome. However, this is work the Government should be doing but has not done. At this stage, the Minister should give a commitment to arrange to hold the jobs summit promised 14 months ago and for which we are still waiting.

Several other issues must be dealt with speedily. I refer to the question of job sharing. At present, a great number of people who have no work are searching on a daily basis. At the same time, there is another group of people who probably have too much work to do, including those who wish to reduce their workload for one reason or another, such as to provide care for children or elderly relatives or to take breaks for study and so on. There is great potential for expanding job sharing arrangements and this should be examined. Only yesterday, I received a call from a person who works in FÁS who wishes to work term time but is not allowed to do so. There is potential for job-sharing throughout the economy and we should promote it actively. We must ensure job facilitators are available for people to come forward with business ideas to start their own businesses.

In this regard, I draw the attention of the Minister of State to the fact that the post of job facilitator in the Navan Road social welfare office has been vacant since last November. People who want to get off the dole are coming forward with ideas about setting up their own businesses and they seek support from the jobs facilitator who should be in place but, unfortunately, the job is vacant. I call on the Minister of State to give early attention to filling this vacancy because it has a critical role in terms of helping people to move from welfare to work.

There is a need to streamline services in respect of job placement. We must create one-stop-shops involving FÁS, the VECs, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The services are too scattered at present and it is too confusing for people. We should take a one-stop-shop approach. Also, we must expand on the graduate and apprentice placement programme while avoiding the displacement of jobs. There is great potential for expanding this scheme and a small allowance should be paid to people to cover the cost of participation in work.

In the area of social welfare, there is a need for greater flexibility in respect of people being able to take on part-time, temporary and casual work. The system should be more flexible to facilitate people in availing of any job opportunities that arise. We should not put barriers in people's way, however short the duration of work.

There is an urgent need for reform of the family income supplement, the rent supplement and the mortgage interest supplement to ensure there is a financial disincentive for people to give up the work to benefit from the social welfare supports in place. Flexibility is required in the way in which these schemes operate to enable people to take up whatever opportunities are available, even short-term opportunities. Principally, the Government must place a clear focus on this single most important issue facing the country and which, regrettably, it has not done to date.

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