Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:

"acknowledges the important role that activation and work placement initiatives have had on supporting jobseekers;

notes that:

— the number of people in employment in Ireland grew by 61,000 or 3.3 per cent last year and stood at over 1.9 million at the end of 2013; and

— the rate of unemployment was 11.9 per cent in February 2014, down from 15 per cent in early 2012;

nevertheless remains concerned that:

— the level of unemployment is still far too high;

— 60,000 young people aged under 25 are without work; and

— long-term unemployment levels remain above 155,000;

recognises the Government’s commitment to:

— prioritise actions to stimulate employment creation and reduce unemployment under the Action Plan for Jobs and Pathways to Work strategies;

— focus attention on initiative for young unemployed people;

— resource a broad range of interventions to support the jobseeker access education, training, internships and work placements; and

— provide opportunities for over 25,000 placements on Community Employment, 7,500 placements on Tús and 3,000 placements on Gateway to support jobseekers back to work and to underpin the delivery of important services of benefit to communities;

welcomes:

— the commencement of the roll-out of Gateway in county and city councils;

— the practical and social benefits Gateway offers the jobseeker to re-engage with work;

— the continued positive feedback from participants on Community Employment and Tús, work placements programmes similar to Gateway and the enormous success of JobBridge, the national internship scheme;

— the ongoing development of Government initiatives to support jobseekers in terms of further education and training, reskilling and activation, with a view to availing of opportunities as they arise in the economy;

— the continued positive contribution in terms of service support at a local level that schemes such as Gateway can offer; and

— the proposals made to the European Commission to support young people to get back into work;

commends:

— the commitment of county and city councils to deliver on Gateway and the positive outcomes it can have for jobseekers;

— the fact that 15 per cent of places on Gateway will be reserved for those aged under 25; and

— the ongoing commitment of the Minister for Social Protection and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to the development and role of Gateway."

I wish to share my time with Deputies Heather Humphreys and Jim Daly. I have listened with some interest to the debate but I am somewhat perplexed. Every independent commentator on the Irish welfare system has observed that we were trapping people in idleness, that we divorced the payments system from the activation system, and that we did not create the developmental welfare system whereby people on welfare are supported to take on new opportunities.

The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton is seeking to turn our welfare system completely around to make it a system for helping people to avail of new opportunities to develop their skills. Most particularly, it aims to help people who have been a long time out of work. The Pathways to Work scheme is not just about developing new skills. The Intreo offices are a new approach, a one-stop-shop approach where cash payments and information on opportunities are provided. These offices provide active engagement with the welfare system with the promotion of job search and training opportunities and giving people the opportunity to move on from the live register.

There has been criticism of the failure to deal with our welfare system in the crash. The Minister for Social Protection is taking on this task. She inherited a difficult situation which many here have acknowledged. Long-term unemployment was exceedingly high, at 150,000 in 2011, but today that figure has been decreased to just over 100,000. The number of long-term unemployed, as reported by the quarterly national household survey, has dropped by well over 25%, nearly by one third. That is a significant achievement against a backdrop of a serious problem. This has been built on real opportunities for helping people who are out of work to develop their skills. The Opposition shadow spokespersons will know that the probability of a person getting work falls dramatically past the six months, 12 months, 18 months and two years out of work. The probability after 18 months out of work is only one tenth, one in ten chances, of getting placed, compared with a 50% chance of work in the early stages of unemployment. There is a well-documented and proven problem that the longer a person remains on the live register, the more difficult it is to access opportunities. That is combined with the damage to self-esteem, the ability to self-start, and to see a pathway to develop skills. We have very consciously sought to develop alternative opportunities.

It is interesting that the motion has picked the Gateway scheme which is one of what I reckon to be about 115,000 alternative opportunities being provided by this Government to assist people to develop their skills. Gateway provides about 3,000 opportunities out of 115,000. Even the Opposition will have to admit that the range of options offers a wide scope. Deputies rightly spoke about the need for training and education and for a different mix. The range is there for all to see. I was amazed that not a single speaker mentioned Springboard, which is designed for a person who has been out of work who wants to reskill and change direction, or MOMENTUM, which is a scheme on the job and off the job. There are 6,000 people on Springboard and 6,500 people on MOMENTUM.

Deputies referred to JobBridge but solely in a critical way. The truth about JobBridge is that 60% of those who have participated in it have been placed either directly with the sponsoring company or with other companies. This is a very high placement rate. The vocational training and opportunities scheme has 5,000 people in education programmes. Twenty-five thousand people are participating in back to education schemes. The intention of the Government in introducing Gateway is to provide a broad range of options which need to include intensive training elements and a mix of options and also work experience as an objective. Gateway does not pretend to be a Springboard or a MOMENTUM. It is another option in a menu of options.

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