Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I mbuiséad 2013, chuir an Rialtas tús leis an scéim Gateway, a chuireann daoine dífhostaithe faoi bhrú dul ag obair ar feadh 19 uair go leith i gcomhair €20 sa bhreis ar an jobseeker's allowance. As my friend, Deputy Ó Snodaigh pointed out, the Gateway scheme compels unemployed people to carry out work for local authorities, with threats of cuts to or suspension of welfare payments if they do not comply. This is despite the fact that only a fraction of the minimum wage will be paid in return for such work. Where does Labour stand in the context of this particular transaction? No training will be provided, nor will there be any prospect of long-term employment for those being forced to accept places on Gateway. Where stands Labour in respect of that matter?

Gateway punishes the unemployed for being unemployed and copperfastens the understaffing of essential local services. Even if an unemployed person is motivated to do so, he or she cannot apply to participate on Gateway. Instead, the victim is selected by the Department of Social Protection. If, for whatever reason, he or she declines to participate, he or she will risk a reduction in or total loss of his or her social welfare income support. That is what makes Gateway similar to the Tús initiative originally conceived by Fianna Fáil. We did not have time to research what the Labour Party had to say about that initiative when it was introduced. However, it is clear that it was an anti-class and anti-fraud - so-called - measure rather than an activation measure.

The €20 top-up to be paid to Gateway participants will be subject to PRSI and in some cases it will be almost completely eroded. For example, a parent with four children could be obliged to pay €18 or €20 in PRSI. Local authorities have been given 3,000 places to fill but surely - again we must ask what is Labour's position on this matter - the citizens who take them up deserve proper terms and conditions and to have their rights, as workers, respected. The Gateway scheme expressly intends that participants will do work which local authorities no longer carry out as a result of the recruitment embargo. I presume the demand for such work remains but it cannot be done as a result of Government policy. The upshot is that this yellow-pack version of a community employment scheme is being introduced to fill the void. The Gateway scheme is also being introduced in the aftermath of local authority funding being drastically slashed and in an environment where the public service embargo continues to hold sway. In the past year alone, 3,000 jobs have been axed from local authorities. The notion of using cheap - almost free - labour should be repugnant to anyone who is a member of the labour movement. It is nothing but exploitation of unemployed citizens.

People become annoyed when they contrast that with the deference paid to others in society. For example, €500 million has been taken out of the local authority budget and given to Irish Water. Some €75 million or €85 million of this was paid to consultants and the remainder will be spent on installing water meters. None of this expenditure will lead to the creation of sustainable jobs.

The Government is not serious about this being an employment scheme. In my constituency of Louth the target figure for inclusion in the Gateway scheme is 80. The unemployment figure for Louth is 16,000. A total of 80 places out of 16,000 is not exactly a jobs initiative even if these were by any measure real jobs. The scheme follows on the heels of JobBridge, which also exploits welfare recipients with little hope of gaining long-term employment or skills training.

If there was real investment in indigenous Irish business, for example, the building of primary health services or health centres throughout the State - not only where the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly wants them - or real investment to provide real jobs by developing services, for example, to fix the leaking water system rather than install meters outside people's homes in order that people can be charged for water, then we would be making some fist of it. The Government should withdraw the scheme - a first step would be to withdraw the shameful Government amendment - and support the Sinn Féin motion.

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