Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One of the successes of the last four years has been the level of job creation. The unemployment rate has been brought down from 15.1% to 6.8% and looks like being under 6% in the not too distant future. While that is very good news, unfortunately for some it is not good news, particularly those who have been employed to try to help others to find jobs. As I understand it, there are over 300 people around the country working in community partnerships. I am not clear on what the structure is, but I know that they are concerned that the new structures put in place in the past 12 months have meant that their workload has decreased dramatically. This has happened for a number of reasons but particularly because more and more people are back at work. The individuals to whom I refer do not know what their future role will be be. The Minister for Social Protection should, therefore, clarify how the 300 people concerned will be accommodated.We will still have people who will lose jobs. Even in times of substantial economic growth, people will have to retrain. We need to know how to change the focus for those 300 people, who have provided a great service. In the last 12 months, 26,000 long-term unemployed went back to work, exceeding the target of 20,000. This was a huge achievement by all agencies. I ask that the Acting Leader request the Minister for Social Protection attend the House to explain what new structures are to be put in place to deal with people who lose their jobs but have to go through the retraining process.