John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Fahey for sharing time. I welcome the Bill and I also welcome the opportunity to offer some suggestions and ideas to the Minister. Deputy Ó Cuív is one of the few Ministers who is always prepared to listen to new ideas.

The full transfer of the employment services and community services programmes of FÁS from the Minister for Education and Skills to me as Minister for Social Protection is a good idea. FÁS has been the subject of some very bad comments and criticism in recent months, not because of the actions of its ordinary employees but because of the shenanigans in which people at the highest level in the organisation engaged. I deal with ordinary FÁS employees in Wexford and Enniscorthy on a daily basis. I find them to be excellent individuals who work very diligently on behalf of people who wish to avail of training courses, upskill themselves or create opportunities to allow themselves to return to the work environment.

In view of the fact that the transfer to which I refer is taking place, I suggest that the Minister get out and about in order to meet those who work in FÁS offices. I am sure he has already visited certain offices in parts of the country. Those who work in these offices and who operate in our communities have some excellent ideas with regard to the way forward for the organisation. They are of the view that many of the diktats which come from on high in respect of training schemes, upskilling and the preparation of programmes are not relevant to the day-to-day operation of FÁS.

I wish to provide the Minister with an example of the work done by FÁS employees in my constituency. These individuals are of the view that at times they are not listened to and are not involved in the development of the new schemes that are required within communities. The green agenda and the development of wind energy have been very much to the fore in the work programme of the current Government and many wind turbines have been erected throughout the country. However, the amazing fact relating to the erection of such turbines is that, because they lack either the necessary skills or training, very few Irish people are employed during the construction phase.

Recently, where turbines were being erected in Wexford there was a number of job opportunities but when the people applied, the first question they were asked was whether they had a climbing certificate. A climbing certificate is essential for the erection of turbines. I followed up the matter on behalf of four persons in my area and I was told by FÁS that it has no training facility in Ireland for the climbing certificate and it would have to send trainees to the UK which would cost between €1,500 and €2,000 per person, with additional funding for bed and breakfast accommodation or whatever accommodation would be required. I raised this with the new chairman of FÁS and I asked him to initiate a scheme because wind energy and wave energy will be very much part and parcel of the future of this country.

This is one area in which FÁS should be involved at the coalface in Ireland. We should not need to send people to be trained in England, which takes time and money. It is an idea for a new scheme within FÁS. There are other areas where there are opportunities for upskilling and training in our communities where there is not the necessary facility within FÁS and I am sure the Minister will look at all of them.

Another issue I wish to raise is that of job facilitators with Youthreach. I discovered this week that the job facilitator with Youthreach in Enniscorthy who is funded by FÁS, at a time when young people are finding it difficult to acquire work, is being withdrawn from March next. As the Minister will be aware, Youthreach is run through the VEC in the Department of Education and Skills. Perhaps it is because of the break-up, but there is widespread anger in my constituency that the job facilitator is being withdrawn and the young people must fend for themselves in getting work experience and job opportunities. The person involved in Enniscorthy in Youthreach has a 70% or 80% record on placement. He is there for the past 15 years. He will be paid a considerable sum in redundancy and all of the experience he has built up over the years will be gone. That is another issue that needs to be looked at. Given that there is a break-up between the Departments of Education and Skills and Social Protection, there should be some cross-over from time to time.

The social employment schemes and the farm assist schemes are worthwhile. Many people are anxious to get on to such schemes because they want to be in a position to get involved with community groups, with GAA clubs and with care facilities, and I welcome in the plan announced today that the Minister is moving in that direction. However, it is important that the Minister would speed up the process. I am not blaming him personally, but there seems to be a dragged-out system of getting people on CE schemes and on farm assist schemes. People are anxious to get on them and I hope that would happen as quickly as possible.

I refer to the new technology in electronic certification. It is a good idea. However, the problem is not with people signing on but with people getting the decision. It can take many weeks to process, particularly in respect of jobseeker's benefit which can take months. I am sure the Minister will agree with me that if genuine young people make an application having lost their jobs, perhaps without enough stamps to qualify, they should not need to have all of these inspections carried out. It should be taken in good faith. There should be periodic inspections carried out subsequently and if it is discovered that they are working and signing on, then action should be taken. Many genuine people aged 18 or 19 are applying having lost their jobs, but the Department has all of these inspections being carried out involving months of delay. People are finding it difficult to get decisions. It is an area where there should be much more trust in applicants. I am totally opposed to any fraud and I would encourage the Minister to wipe out fraud, but there are many genuine cases waiting an inordinate amount of time to have their applications fully dealt with.

Another issue the Minister has heard me raise at my parliamentary party on a number of occasions is the pre-retirement scheme. There used be a pre-retirement scheme in social welfare when the late Séamus Brennan was Minister, where people when they reached approximately 60 years of age did not have to sign on anymore. They got their book, they went to their post office and they claimed their money. The Minister should look at reintroducing that. A person in his or her 60s should not have to make a claim every month. The person has served his or her time. It is important that such a pre-retirement scheme would be considered. I would ask the Minister to look at that.

Rent supplement has been mentioned. Some community welfare officers are good on rent supplement and some are very tough on it, but we all know the genuine cases. There is an area that causes some concern where a person who gets the rent supplement usually must pay the landlord a deposit upfront. If the tenant wants to leave that landlord and go somewhere else, more often than not the landlord will not give back the deposit. There are some genuine landlords but there are some unscrupulous ones who will not give back the deposit. On behalf of students here in Dublin, I received a letter in the past week from the students' union asking for this deposit retention to be brought into some kind of legal framework because students are finding it difficult to get back their deposits. It is an area the Minister should look at. There should be a quicker response.

The breaking up of FÁS is, to a certain extent, to be welcomed. The break-up is one matter but how relevant FÁS will be in future because of the high unemployment rates is another. There is new thinking and ideas required. The Minister is driving on with the new thinking and the new ideas, but he needs to implement them as quickly as possible. There is a considerable number of GAA clubs in my county who say to me that they are even prepared to pay the difference or give a top-up if they get people on community employment schemes or under the new scheme of which the Minister speaks, the community work placement programme. As Deputy Fahey stated, there are many care facilities also.

As the Minister and Deputy Ring will be aware, every half-parish and parish in this country has a GAA club, a rugby club or a soccer club, and FÁS is not tapping in to the wonderful facilities in community sporting organisations throughout the country. There are many community sporting organisations willing to play their part in helping young people to get off the dole to give them job placement opportunities. Recently there was an excellent article, written by Eugene McGee in the Irish Independent, suggesting that there should be far more co-ordination between GAA clubs and the Departments of Education and Skills and Social Protection to set up new work schemes involving the sporting organisations. I would ask the Minister to look at how we can tap in to the sporting organisations for the future.

I welcome the changes contained in the Bill. The Minister, in the different Departments he was in down the years, has been innovative and has been involved in coming up with new ways and new thinking. We are going in the right direction but there are a few areas I raised where the Minister needs to get his officials to speed matters up and ensure that they are implemented as quickly as possible.

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