Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I work in an area where at one stage unemployment went from 40% up to 80%. I was elected in that area, where a lot of work has been done by community groups. I was involved in community groups for a long period, serving as chairperson of a local community association which was providing accommodation for over 41 different organisations. At the time, I was chair of the board of management and had 30 people employed under a community employment scheme, so I am very familiar with this whole area.

In regard to JobPath, of course there are cases where individuals have not been treated appropriately, but I think the number of cases where that has occurred is very small in real terms. The whole point of JobPath has been to help people, not just with finding jobs but in terms of retraining and reskilling. I was in the European Parliament in 2009 when Dell in Limerick closed. I was instrumental, working with Brian Crowley MEP, in meeting with the Commissioner to get the rules changed on how the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund would work. At the time, the rule was that the jobs had to be going outside Europe, whereas the jobs in Dell were going to Poland, and, therefore, Limerick did not qualify for funding. We got the rules changed in order to provide retraining.

This is what JobPath has done in regard to identifying the role of people who are unemployed. It was not just about finding jobs but also about providing the appropriate training to allow people to find work. The whole issue in regard to employment is that it changes. There was a time when a person could come out with a qualification for life, whatever the qualification was. Now, we find that people have to go back and retrain because the job they have been doing for the past ten years is no longer available. JobPath has been very successful in directing people to training programmes which are successful. The proof of this is that we have brought unemployment down from 15.1% to slightly over 6%, which is a huge achievement. The evidence is that the people who have gone into retraining have got the skills and this has entitled them to get employment. For example, one person I am very friendly with was involved in the building line whereas he is now involved in providing care in a medical facility. He loves the job because that is what he really wanted to do - he wanted to give a commitment to people. There are people out there who were unemployed who wanted to make a contribution and, whether through community employment or retraining, to get back into full-time employment.

I agree with Senator Mac Lochlainn on one aspect, namely, there are challenges in regard to community employment and this is an issue that needs to be revisited. One problem I found with community employment was when I was trying to get someone into a CE scheme recently only to find the person could not be employed because a review was going on. When I asked how long the review was going to take, I could not get a straight answer, and it went from three weeks to over three months. Even as I speak, I understand that review has not been completed and, therefore, the organisation that wanted to take on someone under a CE scheme has not been able to take on that person.There is also the issue with employment where the JobsPlus scheme has worked extremely well. Something I worry about for Sinn Féin is that its Senators come in here and criticise Minister or schemes. What is great about Sinn Féin to be able to do that? They declined to enter into negotiations about going into government with anyone here, they failed to go into the Northern Ireland Executive, they failed to take their seats in the House of Commons and yet they feel quite free about coming in here criticising everyone and everything.