Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me, in partnership with my colleague, Deputy Crowe, to raise this issue. As two Tallaght-based Deputies, we are deeply concerned about the situation whereby 28 employees of the Tallaght community development initiative, on the job initiative scheme, have been given notice that their contracts of employment will be terminated on 1 July next.

After the excitement of the day one would expect some of us to be calm, and I will be as calm as I can, but at the same time, I must admit to the Minister of State, Deputy Killeen, whom I welcome, that I am particularly agitated about this issue. It is a blow for Tallaght and although I do not want to exaggerate the issue, it has been brewing for some time. The 28 job initiative scheme workers employed by Tallaght community development initiative are involved in a number of important projects in the Tallaght area, dealing with disadvantage and other issues. A number of them are in the RAPID area.

To give the Minister of State a flavour of these projects, they include the Tallaght Travellers' homework project, the Swan family centre based in Alderwood in Springfield, St. Kevin's resource centre in Kilnamanagh, Firhouse parish centre, the citizens' information centre, which launched a new booklet in Tallaght yesterday, the Kilinarden community centre, St. Mailruan's intercultural drop-in centre in the village, the community forum and Brittas national school.

One can see these projects are very dependent on the job initiative scheme. They have been successful, adding to services in Tallaght and providing tremendous facilities. The workers were completely shocked when out of the blue on Monday last they got notice that their employment was to be terminated. This must be taken in the context that both I and Deputy Crowe have been told that other sponsors are available and have confirmed to FÁS that they can take on the workers.

There are other projects that will facilitate these workers.

This is a case of FÁS bureaucracy running amok. I depend on the Minister of State to sort out this matter for us. I appeal to him to get involved. I acknowledge the interest the Minister of State has shown since we brought the matter to his attention yesterday. I acknowledge also the interest of the Minister and the Department officials who have been in touch with us. Somebody has to sort out the FÁS management and bureaucracy. It should be made clear to the management that Tallaght is not prepared to stand idly by and let 28 important JI jobs be lost. The projects would suffer hugely and the infrastructure in Tallaght would be at a loss. Ministerial intervention is vital in this case. I do not want to tell the Minister of State what to do but FÁS management should be summoned tomorrow morning and the Department should make it clear that this can be sorted out. I do not want to be here next week lamenting the loss of these jobs and trying to raise the matter in another way. The solution is obvious. It is clear from the information made available to us that other projects are in place that can cater for this situation.

I ask the Minister of State to pay special attention to this matter and intervene. These are important projects. A number of them are in RAPID areas, which I understood would be guaranteed. I am making a special appeal to the Minister of State and I hope he will accept the points I have made to him and save these 28 JI jobs in Tallaght.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Minister of State accept the importance of the projects my colleague, Deputy O'Connor, has outlined? I cannot stress strongly enough the importance of these different projects to the community in the greater Tallaght area, some of which extend into Brittas. They are all doing vital work. I described this announcement as a body blow to the communities and community groups in those areas. Many of them will do vital work with young children in the area over the summer months. Groups like Tallaght Citizens' Information Service provide information on social welfare problems and so on. People use that service constantly but it is due to lose some of its people. Deputy O'Connor spoke about the important work the Tallaght Travellers homework project is doing with the homework clubs and so on. This announcement appears to be a contradiction in that respect. The Minister of State will be aware that the education committee has discussed the problem of disadvantage and the importance of giving young people an opportunity to break out of the cycle of poverty and disadvantage. There are people working in those areas.

This is an unusual situation in that the TCDI board resigned en masse and we are told the jobs will be terminated from 1 July. We are being told by FÁS that there is no official policy in place to account for the JI managing agents terminating their work. There is a contradiction here, and it struck me when talking to people about this matter, in that we had a statement from the Minister, Deputy Martin, on 10 November 2004, the headline of which read: "Martin Introduces Changes to FÁS Employment Scheme." He said there would be no compulsory lay-offs yet 28 people are facing redundancy. All the staff have been asked by FÁS if they want to take redundancy. We are told constantly that these people do not want to work but they want to work in their communities, and they are doing vital work. No one wants to accept the lay-offs.

I thought the uncertainty around this issue had been addressed following the statement from the Minister, Deputy Martin. Why is this situation happening? Will the uncertainty around the JI, community employment and the social economy programmes be raised again? Last year, Members from all parties in this House raised the issue of these programmes being terminated and the effect of that on communities, particularly disadvantaged communities. There is a contradiction in this situation because the Government statement was to the effect that it was concerned about disadvantage yet it allowed these cutbacks in the area.

I do not know whether what has happened is a blip in the system but we want to know the position. I realise the Minister will read from a script when replying but I hope it will not be the usual type of reply to the effect that the matter is being examined and so on. We want answers here tonight. If that is not possible, we are asking the Minister of State and his Department to resolve this situation sooner rather than later and before these jobs are lost because it will have enormous effect on the people living in those communities, not just on the families of the people working in JI schemes.

This is a body blow to the people in Tallaght. There is an opportunity, even at this late stage, to resolve this matter. Why can the people on these schemes not be transferred to another sponsoring agency? That is the important question. If mechanisms or structures have to be put in place to allow that to happen, I ask the Minister of State to put those structures in place and not allow this action be mirrored in other communities throughout the State because that is what will happen. FÁS appears to be taking a strong line on this issue. We are all looking for compromise, which can resolve the situation. I hope the Minister of State and his Department can resolve it.

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputies for raising this issue on the Adjournment.

The active labour market programmes undertaken by FÁS comprise job initiative, community employment and the social economy programme. Between them these programmes provide about 25,000 places. The vast majority of participants, in the order of 21,600, are on community employment.

Job Initiative is an active labour market programme aimed specifically at those over 35 years of age who have been unemployed for the previous five years. Participants are employed on a full-time basis. In the region of 1,900 participants are currently employed on JI.

The programme was introduced as a pilot programme in 1996-97 with 1,000 places available. It operated as a three-year work experience programme with the objective of progressing its participants into jobs in the open labour market. The allocation of places to individual projects is an administrative matter for FÁS. Currently, local managing agents manage Job Initiative projects, usually at partnership level. These managing agents are legally and administratively the employers of the participants in the JI context.

There was extensive consultation with the social partners and key stakeholders last year on the future direction of FÁS labour market programmes. Following the conclusion of the review process, my colleague, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, announced that with effect from 10 November 2004 there would be no compulsory lay-offs on JI. Participants employed on the programme would have their contracts renewed for a further term. In circumstances where people leave JI voluntarily, the community organisations may replace them with CE participants. These arrangements are intended to ensure the maintenance of the provision of a network of valuable community services throughout the country.

It is intended that available resources will fund additional community employment positions and other improvements to the programme, which it is believed will provide better outcomes for the long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged groups. The CE programme is currently being restructured by FÁS to better meet the needs of the individual participants. The new approach will include a new application and assessment process for CE sponsors and an individual learner plan for participants.

I am informed by FÁS that the Tallaght Community Development Initiative, which is the managing agent on behalf of FÁS, does not wish to continue to manage the project and that the TCDI itself — and I stress this point — has decided on its own initiative to disband the company with effect from Friday, 1 July 2005. This was not a decision taken by FÁS. Furthermore, I am informed by FÁS that it was only informed of this decision on Monday, 20 June 2005. In the meantime, FÁS is using every effort in seeking out other placement possibilities for the JI supported workers and the continuation of the services provided by the company. FÁS has already met representatives of the managing agent and further meetings are planned to discuss a way forward. I have asked FÁS to keep me informed of developments.

I would point out that Exchequer funding is providing more than 25,000 places on FÁS employment programmes this year at a cost in the region of €368 million, of which €293 million is in respect of CE.