Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I imagine we will be told tonight by the Government side that the crisis is over, that the economy is healthy and that the live register is going down. I suppose this will be the spin from the Government side. Recent figures show that there are 61,000 more people in work than the previous corresponding 12 month period and I accept that. However, the figures quietly ignore that much of this can be attributed to emigration and a change in the Central Statistics Office measurement tools, or that the vast majority of jobs are being created in the low pay and low skills sectors. The Government has continually set out to attack those on social welfare and cut the associated payments. In 2014 the Government cut unemployment benefit for those under 25 years of age and publicly stated that this would entice more people into work. Has that happened? I do not believe it has. It did not and it has not. What it did was force more and more people on the flight path to emigration as well as pushing many more into deeper poverty.

Let us consider the sad and bleak figures and remember that there is a story behind every figure. A total of 127,000 people of working age have left the country since 2009. Recent research has shown that 60% of Irish emigrants were in employment when they left. The numbers of people emigrating in search of jobs or because the jobs here do not offer progressive career paths or opportunities as well as the numbers stuck in low pay or who lack sufficient working hours make it clear that there is a serious problem in our so-called healthy jobs sector.

The Government decided in its wisdom that all these people needed a little more experience. It set up JobBridge to make jobseekers work full-time jobs for a few bob on top of their dole. Is it not legitimate to ask that if we offer companies free labour, then why would they ever hire full-time properly paid employees? I imagine this is the question that many people listening to this debate will be asking. The scheme is a failure and akin to the exploiting of vulnerable people who cannot say "No" or question the validity of the programmes that the Government is putting them on.

A 22 month long stint with a county or city council is being offered, but this does not involve quality training or enhance employability and it is not voluntary. Basically, it is a scheme that is being foisted on the unemployed to get them to work a full-time job for €20 on top of their dole payment, as mentioned by other speakers. Is €20 going to get people back to work? It costs people money to go to work. In many cases this princely sum does not cover expenses. Those working 19 and a half hours per week on the Gateway scheme will get less than €1 per hour extra. The scheme allows local councils to circumvent the recruitment embargo and get some cheap jobs done at the same time. The scheme cannot be accused of innovation, it will not have a positive impact on long-term unemployed people and it is not in keeping with best international practice. For many, it is seen as a direct attack on workers' rights and an abuse of vulnerable jobseekers. It is time for the Government to stop its attack of people on social welfare and instead focus on creating real enduring jobs.

This is a problem throughout Europe. We have consistently called for a robustly funded youth guarantee scheme to ensure every young person in the State can avail of a real job or training place. There can be no recovery without jobs and these are among the options the Government could take instead of implementing these madcap schemes.

For example, we have called for the use of the discretionary fund of €6.4 billion in the National Pensions Reserve Fund. In addition, we have called for no more cuts in the capital expenditure budget to invest in a roll-out of essential infrastructure such as the A5 road completion, school and primary care centre build, completion of regeneration projects, the comprehensive roll-out of broadband, and an upgrading of the water system, rather than the introduction of water meters.

We have asked the Government to seek European Investment Bank-matched funding for the re-establishment of the sugar beet industry in the south east, the development of Knock Airport, the regeneration of the Cork docklands, and the deepening of the harbour berths at Rosslare. We have called for the establishment, with the pension industry, of investment in a green bank that will fund the roll-out of energy retrofitting and generate stable returns higher than Government bonds for the pension industry.

These are the options we are outlining, which the Government should consider.

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