Dáil debates
Wednesday, 5 April 2017
Topical Issue Debate
Community Employment Schemes Review
4:55 pm
Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter with the Minister. I have met him and his officials regarding it a couple of times. I thank them for giving of their time over the past year or more. It was one of the first issues I raised when I first joined the Dáil. I did so because of the importance of such schemes to individuals and communities, not just in my constituency of Kildare North, but elsewhere. This is a problem nationally, as I am sure the Minister is aware. It has also been raised by my colleagues, Deputies O'Dea and Ó Cuív.
We must examine the current Tús schemes and I want to determine with the Minister how their timeframes can be extended in certain circumstances. This matter is included in the programme for Government, which is welcome. The intention of these schemes is to reintroduce people to full and gainful employment. Unfortunately, that is not the outcome, and may never be, for all participants. We must focus on delivering improvements in that regard.
The system is not working well. Participants on Tús schemes are carrying out valuable work for their communities. The difficulty is that, although they must leave the schemes after a year, no one is coming through to replace them and allow their work to continue and their communities and hosts - football clubs, soccer clubs, athletics clubs, etc. - to gain. This problem is having a negative effect on participants, communities and groups. Participants are engaging in JobPath schemes and the like because they are not able to continue with Tús.
Will the Minister extend the Tús schemes for people in particular age brackets who know that, realistically, they will not be able to return to full-time employment but who nevertheless provide a much-valued social contribution to their schemes and communities? That contribution needs to be extended. I am unsure as to whether the problem in this regard is that unemployment is decreasing and people are not coming through or whether there is an issue with getting on lists, but the lists are not coming through. I engage with the hosts and scheme administrators on the ground. They are not getting the lists or a continuity of people, which has a detrimental effect on everyone involved.
Given the age profile in question - over 55, 57 or 60 years, for example - we need to consider extending the schemes for these individuals. The schemes have brought benefits and advantages, but they need to be reviewed in certain areas in order to help their participants. The current system is not working because of a major issue. If it is not addressed, I would be concerned for all involved. Some schemes have no participants. The main sufferers of that are the communities, groups and those participants who had to leave their schemes.
5:05 pm
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy O'Rourke for raising this important issue. Community employment and Tús are part of my Department's range of programmes and schemes, catering for long-term unemployed jobseekers and those most distant from the labour market. They are designed to break the cycle of unemployment and maintain work readiness, thereby improving a person's opportunities of returning to the labour market or getting a job for the first time.
Employment programmes also support the delivery of vital services in local communities. The programmes deliver on two levels. First, they provide a person who is unemployed with the opportunity of work experience and a chance to develop new skills to prepare him or her for employment in the open labour market. Second, they play a very important role in augmenting service delivery to local communities in key areas such as child care, health and social care, drug rehabilitation and local amenities. All areas of the country have benefitted from these programmes. I have seen this first-hand over the past few months when I visited various schemes throughout the country and I know it from my experience in my constituency down through the years.
As the economic recovery takes hold and the overall level of unemployment continues to fall - it is almost one third of what it was a few years ago - the need to adapt employment programmes to the changing circumstances and the needs of jobseekers has become more apparent and urgent. With this in mind, my Department undertook an analysis of the CE programme. While the primary focus was on CE, the review also looked at other employment programmes such as Tús and Gateway. The report made a number of recommendations in regard to the operation of these schemes. As the Deputy may be aware, I recently brought a memorandum on the programmes to Government and I obtained approval to publish the review report and to progress its various recommendations. I intend to publish the report in the next few days.
As part of the implementation of new measures, my Department will be consulting with key stakeholders, such as supervisors and providers, in the coming weeks and implementation of the new measures will commence thereafter. The nature and format of the consultation process is being finalised by my Department officials. I assure the Deputy that the work being done through programmes like CE and Tús is highly valued and recognised by Government. It is work that has to be done and we need to ensure there are people available to do it. I believe the changes to be made over the coming months will strengthen the schemes, widen the range and pool of people who can take part and help to ensure they continue to support people who are long-term unemployed to gain valuable skills and experience while continuing to support the delivery of community services.
Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. The Minister is correct that the motivation of these schemes is to help people back into full time employment and in that regard they are succeeding. However, currently there are many schemes with no participants. I would like to know the reason there are no participants on some schemes and what can be done to encourage greater participation in schemes. Is this because more people are being employed or because of a lack of throughput of lists? I am not here to criticise the system in overall terms but if the schemes are to work as effectively as we would all like then it is important that when one participant finishes he or she is replaced within a few days to ensure continuity in the system for participants and communities but that is not happening. I can bring the Minister to a host of schemes in Naas, Kilcock, Maynooth, Celbridge, Leixlip and Clane that are suffering because of a lack of participants. There are massive gaps between one participant finishing on a scheme and another starting, if at all.
There is another problem in regard to JobPath. Many people take up places in Tús while awaiting a place on JobPath. These people are required to meet once a week with a case officer who helps them to get back into full time employment. Many of these people, because of their age profile, may not get back into full time employment. If such people were allowed to remain on a Tús scheme and continue to meet with their case supervisor on a regular basis in relation to obtaining full time employment this would ensure that the Tús scheme and community could still avail of and benefit from their input.
In regard to the CE scheme, I know people who were earmarked for CE schemes but had to take up positions on JobPath because of a delay in the commencement of the CE scheme. If two or three weeks after these people took up positions on JobPath the vacancies arose for which they were earmarked and all involved wanted them to do, including their case officers, supervisors etc., they could not take them up because they were required to complete their time on the JobPath scheme. They are now locked into the JobPath scheme for a year. There are very restrictive practices around these schemes that need to be reviewed.
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Nobody is taken off CE or Tús to participate in JobPath. We do not allow people who have been referred to JobPath to chop and change from one scheme or programme to another. We have never allowed that and we do not propose to do so. A participant in a programme or scheme should complete it. For all sorts of reasons we do not want people changing mid-stream from one scheme or programme to another. A person who is referred to JobPath, who has a start date for commencement on Tús or CE within four weeks, is not required to take up the place on JobPath. If the timeframe in regard to participation in the Tús or CE is more than four weeks he or she is required to take up the JobPath position. What has happened is pretty straightforward. We had approximately 25,000 places on CE schemes. This was increased to 30,000 plus places. Tús was then introduced, followed by Gateway, JobBridge and JobPath. Unemployment has since decreased by two thirds. It is not surprising that there is a mismatch between the number of schemes and programmes available and the number of people available to participate in them. The numbers are slowly being pared back following the withdrawal of JobBridge and the phasing out of Gateway. Because CE and Tús provide vital work on the ground that needs to be done and because of their important social inclusion role, we do not want them to be unable to fill their places, as is currently the case. There are a number of things that I propose to do. I intend to widen the pool of people who are available by reducing the age limit to bring in more younger workers. I will have to think long and hard about what to do for older workers. I also propose to allow people to remain on a scheme for more than a year if they are doing a qualification. We need to do better. When people have completed a year on JobPath they should be referred almost immediately to CE or Tús. A person who has spent a year working with JobPath and has not found a job - most people do not find a job having spent a year on JobPath - is a perfect candidate for Tús and CE, in my view. I do not know why the lists are not being referred on. I acknowledge there is a problem in that regard.
I also intend to review the top-up paid to people who participate in CE or Tús. If one includes lone parents, people with disabilities and so on, there are more than 100,000 people who are eligible for Tús and CE. The top-up is only €22.50 and that is not enough. When account is taken of the cost of lunch, transport and so on a person might be worse off for participating in one of these schemes. I propose to look at that issue in the context of the budget. In the next few days, I propose to announce a relaxing of the rules in terms of who can participate. I am not closed to going further if that does not work.