Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The terms and conditions relating to and the duration of these placements will be broadly similar to those which obtain to community employment schemes and Tús. Local authorities will organise a number of pilot schemes which will commence during February and inform the final design of the scheme. It is anticipated that the local arrangements to permit the pilot schemes to commence in February will be concluded in the coming weeks. My aim is to have the full scheme in operation by sometime in the middle of the year and to have 3,000 people on placements towards the end of the year.

The scheme will be very much geared towards people who are unfortunate enough to be long-term unemployed. We will be considering people who have been not one but rather two or more years on the live register and who have not been participating in education, training or employment. The scheme is designed to assist people in gaining work experience and also in carrying out valuable work in their communities and local authority areas. The response to the Tús and JobBridge programmes has been extremely positive. I await the launch of the pilot schemes which are due to commence in February by the local authorities. The response and interest from communities have been extremely positive.

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