Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy knows, I am very familiar with the Bawnogue area. I am aware that there is a significant unemployment problem in Bawnogue and other parts of the greater Clondalkin area. At the moment, the local employment service and the Department's office in Clondalkin are providing services to people in the area who are seeking to get back to work. I will revert to the Deputy when our examination of the situation has been completed. I understand that two people were working under the most recent contract at Bawnogue Unemployed Group Limited and that the total value of the annual contract was €115,000. Returning to the contractual situation, I should mention that a number of the organisations that provide services to the Department of Social Protection and other Departments, including the organisation in this case, are private limited companies. The responsibility of the Department relates to statutory redundancy. If the company that was employing these two people was unable to meet its redundancy commitments, the Department of Social Protection would cover that under the insolvency arrangements. I am not familiar with the details of this case. The Deputy might like to provide them to me privately. We hope to have another service provided quite soon.

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