Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Thank you, a Chathaoirligh, for your remarks. It is very nice to be back in the Seanad today.

I acknowledge Senator Pat O'Neill's interest in this area and thank him for raising the matter. It affords me an opportunity to inform the House of the roll-out of TÚS, a work placement initiative with the community and voluntary sectors. This will be an important initiative for persons who are unemployed.

I was delighted when, on taking office, I saw the provision of 5,000 places, but I was surprised to find no one had taken the places and that the scheme had not been initiated. Much work has been done since I took office as Minister for Social Protection to get the scheme going.

Senators will wish to note that the first supervisory positions for TÚS were filled this week. Over the course of the next fortnight another 100 or so supervisory, or team leader, posts will be filled and the first 60 or so participants will commence work with local development companies throughout the country as soon as the supervisors are in place.

I would like to summarise some of the key features of TÚS. Five thousand work placements are being identified in the not-for-profit community and voluntary sectors. Local development companies have been working to identify quality work placements within suitable organisations across a broad range of services of benefit to communities. Participants will be paid their social welfare entitlements and an additional €20 per week. Participants under 25 years will be paid the maximum job seeker's allowance plus €20 per week. This will make TÚS very attractive to this age group. Participants will work for 19.5 hours per week, with some degree of flexibility in the schedule of hours.

The aim is to offer 5,000 work placements over the next year. Separate allocations have been made, as was said by the Senator, to each of the local development companies and to Údarás na Gaeltachta which will deliver TÚS at local level. It is important we maintain the focus on the long-term unemployed. For this reason, eligibility for TÚS is, at present, confined to those on the live register for 12 months and in receipt of job seeker's allowance.

TÚS presents one of a number of opportunities to meet the Government's aim of keeping people work-ready and at the same time providing and supporting valuable support services in the community and voluntary sectors. In addition to TÚS and a number of other schemes and initiatives that provide work or work placement opportunities, such as community employment and the rural social scheme, I announced a new internship programme as part of the jobs initiative with the aim of providing 5,000 short duration opportunities.

With regard to the Senator's comments about the limitations on TÚS, the internship scheme, which will go live on 1 July, may answer many of his issues. It will be open to people who have been on the live register for three months or more. It is aimed to give experience to people who have a qualification or an accomplishment but who cannot get a job because they have no experience and cannot get experience because they cannot get a job. Participants will get a six to nine month internship or traineeship, for which they will continue to be paid their social welfare payment plus €50. Given the Senator's comments about a more flexible scheme, he may like to look at that scheme. It will be included in the social welfare Bill and I will outline it in detail when I bring the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2011 to the House before the end of June.

There are a range of interventions, with differential duration and access criteria, designed to offer responses to people presenting with a broad set of circumstances. The overall intention is to have a suite of interventions that will play different roles for people wishing to enhance their employability or commence self-employment.

The availability of job opportunities with some financial incentives, even short-term work placements, is important. In addition to any financial benefit, work brings benefits to the individual, including improvements in his or her position, and to family circumstances. The intention is that following engagement with these types of interventions, a person will progress to available work opportunities or further training or development.

For anyone involved in community or voluntary work or in the community at large, it is depressing to see young people in their 20s heading into dependency on social welfare which could last for half a decade, a decade or even longer and become a lifestyle choice rather than a temporary period when they get an income support from the State and the State reaches out to assist them, whether through education, training or work experience, to get back to the jobs market. That is the cultural reform we must bring about in social welfare.

There is a range of expertise available within local development companies. I went to Tullamore to meet the network of local development companies and to talk about TÚS in detail. I was amazed, on becoming Minister, to find that no one was taking up the course. The response so far has been very positive. During June, we will see the first people taking up the placements. The response from the different companies has been positive.

I will come back to the Senator and we will have an opportunity during the debate on the social welfare Bill to discuss this matter. We will examine the internship programme, which specifically answers the access flexibility requirement the Senator indicated. The internship programme will be open to the private, public, voluntary and community sectors. There have been indications of interest by development companies and the private sector but also, for example, by county managers.