Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 56: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his views on the continued upward drift in the number of people out of work, as recorded in the monthly live register figures; the action he is taking to address this situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31390/07]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The total number of people recorded on the live register for October is 157,449. This is a significant decrease in the numbers recorded in the previous four months of 2007. It also equals the average numbers recorded on the live register for the year in 2005 and 2006. Employment has increased by 247,300 in a three year period since 2004 and the number in employment is 2,140,900.

The live register is not designed to measure unemployment. It includes part-time, seasonal and casual workers entitled to unemployment benefit. Unemployment is measured by the quarterly national household survey, collated and published by the Central Statistics Office. The most recent quarterly national household survey, quarter 3, 2007, indicates that employment has increased by 67,600 in the year. The unemployment rate is 4.7%, down from 4.8% in the same period last year.

The predictions for the medium term are for continued employment growth, albeit at a slower pace than that experienced to date. Ireland's overall employment rate is 69.9%, which compares favourably to the EU rate of 64.4%. The range of services provided by FÁS will be available to anyone who becomes unemployed. This will include active engagement with persons on the live register to help them obtain jobs either directly or through further training, education or work experience and access to the various training and employment programmes provided by FÁS.

FÁS also emphasises the training of low-skilled workers in vulnerable industries to ensure that, in the event of becoming unemployed, they will have the skills necessary to make the transition to other employment. The development agencies, the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and the county enterprise boards will continue to promote job creation through the delivery of programmes to help the enterprise sector develop, thereby creating new jobs.

Over the period of the National Development Plan 2007-13, the NDP, the Government will invest €7.7 billion in public funds to support training and skills development. This is a significant increase on the level of spending at €5.9 billion over the previous seven year period. The level of investment reflects the importance the Government attaches to maintaining an educated, skilled and adaptable workforce in Ireland.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

The NDP will focus on upskilling the workforce and the activation and participation of groups outside it. Upskilling the workforce will include measures to improve training for people in employment, help upskill those affected or likely to be affected by industrial re-structuring, improve and enlarge the apprenticeship system and provide progression opportunities for school leavers. A total of €2.8 billion has been provided to support these measures over the lifetime of the NDP. Activation and participation of groups outside the workforce will include measures to provide targeted training and services to the unemployed, people with disabilities, lone parents, Travellers and prisoners, as well as encouraging the increased participation of women, older workers, part-time workers and migrants in the workforce. A total of €4.9 billion has been provided to support these measures over the lifetime of the NDP. FÁS and Skillnets will provide most of this training and €1,076.5 million has been provided for these activities in the pre-budget Estimates for 2008.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Minister does not need to persuade me that this Government is capable of spending large sums of money. I am well aware of that.

Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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We also created it.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Getting value for it is another matter. I accept that we have a vibrant economy to which many in our society have contributed, not least the Minister. I would like him to focus, however, on the extra 8,000 people who are unemployed since this time last year. Do we know who they are? Do they feel displaced by the vibrancy of the labour market and the economy? Do they feel they have a chance to get back into the workforce with the requisite skills to compete against a cohort of European citizens who have the same right to come to this country as we had in our darker days to go elsewhere? If we do not reach out and address them, and if the Minister does not use the resources under his Department's remit to do so, we will lay the foundations for the kind of right wing racist backlash that has occurred in every other medium sized European country whose economy has slowed down, as it is in the nature of a cyclical market economy to do.

What mechanism does FÁS have to track and identify the extra 8,000 people who have become unemployed and ask them what they need in order to get back into work? The macroeconomic performance of this economy is good but there is a danger inherent in the fallout. What steps is the Minister taking to identify the extra 8,000, bringing the total unemployed to 164,000, who have fallen out of this economy, notwithstanding its growth, and bring them back onto the pitch?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I have given the statistics to show that the rate has fallen since this time last year. The key point is that FÁS undertakes activation measures. After three months, FÁS and the Department of Social and Family Affairs meet everybody who is on the register and offer them a variety of programmes for reorientation, training or opportunities. The macro and microeconomies are not separate. The long-term unemployment rate, people on the register for longer than 12 months, is approximately 1.3%.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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They are in a different category. I am talking about the short term.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy mentioned people who feel displaced and one begins to feel displaced and alienated from the labour force if one is out of employment for longer than 12 months. That remains a key sector for activation.

Our Department works with FÁS in an interdepartmental group with the Department of Social and Family Affairs to activate a significant cohort of the live register who are not designated unemployed but who are on welfare because there are barriers to their re-entry to the workforce. These may be people with disabilities or lone parents. We have to change mind sets to endeavour to reach out to that 4% who need access to the labour market. We are satisfied that the rate is at 1.3%.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Deputy Penrose and I would be happy to return to discuss that issue with the Minister. Today, however, I am talking about the 490 workers in Waterford Glass who traditionally had secure and well-paid employment but whose jobs are disappearing, the workers in C&C in Tipperary and the 51 threatened redundancies in Aer Lingus. These people have commitments, such as families, and expectations. Three months is too long to wait to help these people — FÁS and the Department should be at the door to help them into new jobs as soon as the redundancies are made known. I have met these people, as the Minister has in his official capacity. They feel displaced and that is the first step to a sense of alienation and everything that flows from that.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy should inform himself better because we are at the coalface when people are made redundant. FÁS goes straight in.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Minister said it goes in after three months.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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That is the activation programme with the live register. When Waterford Glass closed in Dungarvan and over 200 workers were made redundant, we were in there immediately with the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and FÁS. Only approximately 20 are still out of work. A couple of hundred jobs were lost in Motorola and the three agencies went in as quickly as they could, past management and the company structures, to help the people start their own businesses and ensure that they could avail of FÁS training programmes. The IDA tried to assess their skill sets to match companies that might come in. IBM came in and bought an indigenous company, Vallent and employed approximately 150 people in the software development area. The programme is activated quickly in response to redundancies.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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That works when we are notified but when we are not notified, what happens?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We have a programme under the aegis of FÁS to deal with redundancies anywhere in the economy.