James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am responding to this matter on behalf of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton. I thank Deputy Mattie McGrath for raising the issue. The job initiative, JI, programme provides full-time employment to those who are long-term unemployed over the age of 35 years. In 2004, a Government decision was made to allow participants on the job initiative programme to remain on it until retirement age. There are currently 1,256 JI participants with a budget for the programme in excess of €27 million.

The Tipperary Hostel was an independent company whose day-to-day operations were overseen by a board of management. The project involved the restoration of a former workhouse in Tipperary town with the aim of housing a 30-room budget accommodation hostel. At time of closing, the project employed 21 participants including a supervisor under the job initiative. The project had been running from 1999 to 2010 with labour being provided by the job initiative programme and capital costs being funded by the county council, the Heritage Council and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Funding from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht was withdrawn in April 2010 after accountants from Tipperary Hostel Limited failed to sign the accounts and it came to light that funds were overdrawn. Pobal, on behalf of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, conducted an audit that found serious shortcomings and suspended its funding.

With the closure of the project, FÁS offered each JI participant on the scheme alternative employment with other community employers in Tipperary, including the retention of accumulated service and pay. These positions were approved by FÁS, were additional to existing positions and would not have displaced jobs of existing workers. Only one person took up the offer. The remaining 20 followed the advice of SIPTU and pursued a claim for redundancy. On 7 December 2011 this matter was heard before the Employment Appeals Tribunal, EAT, with 22 appellants seeking redundancy. The Employment Appeals Tribunal upheld that 20 of the 22 appellants were entitled to statutory redundancy from their employer, Tipperary Hostel Limited. The redundancy payments have now been made to the 20 individuals by the redundancy section of the Department of Social Protection.

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