Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yes, we are. Tonight we are speaking of the value of community-led local development, of community knowledge, response and support to our long-term unemployed. The Minister’s proposal will undermine this community approach and replace it with a for-profit model that will not put the unemployed person at its core. This model will force the providers to provide inadequate services to those who so badly need good quality services with wrap-around supports that are tailor-made and services that facilitate their transition, often from long-term unemployment or underemployment, to a job that is suitable for them.

One of the crucial aspects of the current scheme is that it is local and that people feel comfortable in approaching their local job club and local LESs. The approach is informal. Now, the focus will be much more commercial and the drop-in days will be long gone.

Nobody is saying the current system is resistant to change. It would welcome reform but two things should be noted. The Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands has asked the Minister to halt this process. Why will she not do so? Second, I have consulted job clubs and local development companies in Sligo, Leitrim and across the north west and they are very dissatisfied because they do not believe their views or those of the sector were taken on board in the consultations referred to by the Minister. Was it a box-ticking exercise, the obligatory consultation process, and a case of we will do what we planned to do in the first place?

I have spent long enough dealing with issues around the public procurement directive to know that member states are not under any obligation to contract out the provision of services they wish to provide themselves or to organise this by means other than by public contracts. I remember very clearly the tendering of the last LEADER programmes, which was started by one of the Minister’s predecessors, former Minister Phil Hogan. It took a letter from the European Commission to ensure we had an open tendering process rather than the preferred Government option of local county development committees, LCDCs, running LEADER. We know some governments, at least, have form when it comes to using European legislation to achieve their own policy objectives.

We have another European directive, the transfer of undertakings directive. How will that apply to those who are currently working in job clubs and who may lose their jobs? I put down a parliamentary question to the Minister on this very issue and she told me that in phase 1, it was likely those people would be employed by the successful bidders, with appropriate terms. My question is: will that employment be on the same terms? Can she guarantee this to those workers? She said that in phase 2, should the possibility of redundancies arise, it will be the primary responsibility of the employer. The Minister and I know the employers, namely, the current job clubs and LESs, have no resources whatsoever to provide any redundancy payments. If that is the situation, will the Department stand up and fulfil its obligations to workers in Leitrim, Donegal, Roscommon and throughout the country under another European directive, the transfer of undertakings directive?

I was not happy that the Minister in her comments said many Deputies would like to remain in this House irrespective of performance. Obviously, she used this as a direct comparison to the current job clubs and LESs. That is a very strong statement. It is easy to have a go at Deputies in this House as she is on very safe ground there. She is on thin ice, however, when it comes to making that comparison with those who spent ten, 15 or 20-plus years serving the most disadvantaged into employment. Yes, job clubs are not perfect, but for the vast majority of people who work in those services, it is not a case of them wanting to remain in their jobs irrespective of performance.

I must comment on Deputy Michael Healy-Rae’s statement, and he will not mind if I quote him again when I say that I believe this is a kamikaze action on a system that works well.

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