Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I regret that the facts are inconvenient for Deputy O'Dea. As a consequence of the review, many community employment schemes have applied for additional places. This is a strong sign of how much the services provided by the schemes are in demand. In the context of the budget, this is something I will be discussing with my colleagues.

Since I became Minister, I have set up two additional opportunities which are available for those who have unfortunately become unemployed. The first is the national JobBridge internship programme, which currently has more than 5,000 participants, with a further 5,000 having completed the programme. This is available to the private sector and to the public, voluntary and community sectors and it has been highly successful. A recent independent report by Indecon indicated that approximately 50% of the people who have completed an internship have gone on to obtain further employment. The second is the creation of local development networks, which have been popular with local partnerships such as Leader programme companies. More than 5,000 Tús places have been provided. It is a one-year programme which has proven most popular and beneficial to the areas in which it has operated. I hope we will be able to provide more activation places, but this is something I must negotiate with my colleagues in the Department of Finance. It will be especially helpful for people who have unfortunately ended up unemployed long-term because of the recession. It is important to create as many opportunities and pathways as possible to allow them to get a fresh start, whether in their areas of expertise or experience or in completely new areas. The Government has set out to do this.

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