Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Gateway scheme as proposed by the Government is an exploitative measure. It takes advantage of a sector of Irish society made up of those who have found themselves in a vulnerable position, that is, being unemployed. The Government has decided to punish unemployed people for being unemployed. Thomas Davis, the famous Irish patriot, said "Educate that you may be Free". This is the key to fighting against unemployment and to the creation of a diverse and dynamic economy. Gateway does not provide for brighter futures or include training or education mechanisms and, as such, it does not enhance the employability of participants. Fully 61.4% of those now unemployed are in long-term unemployment. The Government must realise that to change the trend of unemployment in the country it must change the way it deals with unemployment. Opportunities to return to education, upskill and diversify must be made available to those who are unlucky enough to find themselves unemployed. Any policy should also include a review of the higher education grant scheme, which puts the most extraordinary obstacles in front of people, particularly younger people who were working and then laid-off or who were self-employed and then forced out of business, to qualify for higher education grants.

Is forced emigration still a budgetary strategy of the Government? The question of what work is worth must also be asked. Under the Gateway scheme unemployed people are forced to carry out work for local authorities through the threat of cuts and suspension to welfare payments. People are forced into 22 months' hard labour and in return receive a measly top-up of €20 per week. There is a term for someone who does not have the right to withdraw his labour and that is a slave. Gateway is nothing more then state-sanctioned slave labour. This, at the same time that cuts are being made to council services. Real jobs with real wages are being taken out of the economy.

Bob Crow, former general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers passed away today, Lord rest him. I imagine the House will join me in commiserating his loss. When he was asked about the outsourcing of jobs he said: "If you have robots build cars, how are robots going to buy them?" If we take real jobs out of the economy and replace them with the likes of the Gateway scheme it will have a knock-on effect on the real economy. Replacing someone who used to earn a full wage with someone who gets €20 on top of his social welfare payment means that shops, bars, restaurants and, ultimately, other people's jobs will suffer.

This scheme is part of a litany of mistakes made by the Government in dealing with the unemployment crisis. The JobBridge scheme should be called the JobBridge scam because it is being used by many companies to avail of free labour instead of hiring people on a decent wage. Behind the Gateway scam is a right-wing belief that unemployed people are unemployed by choice and that they should be forced into work. It is this same right-wing thinking that has landed us in the economic mess we are in currently and which has resulted in thousands being forced to join the dole queues. The architects of our economic crash prosper while the victims of the crash emigrate or are forced into slave labour. Little wonder that people are angry and disillusioned with politics and politicians.

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