Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not understand why somebody like the Deputy would not correctly praise community employment for the opportunity it gives for people to participate in the community and for the services it helps to provide for the community. We should be clear that Gateway aims to improve the employability and work-readiness of participants. This can be done by providing good quality work opportunities with good employers in structured environments. That is the type of scenario available in county councils around the country.

Existing work skills can be put into practice and during placements we want to see new skills being developed to enable progression. The aim of this is to help people get back to work. In Ireland and across the world, if a person goes to an interview having been out of work for one, two, three or four years, the chances of a person being successful are much diminished relative to cases where a person has been involved in the likes of education and training. We provide tens of thousands of places in this regard, including those in new courses such as Momentum and Springboard. Gateway is a small scheme and over a period there will be approximately 3,000 people getting an opportunity to progress back to work through employment with a local authority for 19 hours per week on the same terms and conditions as community employment. The people in the Opposition are always seeking more of that.

See this speech in context