Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to sound a word of caution. I spent 24 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmaceutical companies always pay for their own clinical trials. I know that it may be unpopular to say that. Now, the medical profession is putting pressure that nation states pay for the clinical trials. If we are to pay for those clinical trials we have to be paid the profits. We cannot hastily go down this road.

I second Senator Bacik's amendment to the Order of Business that we take No. 1 with debate.

I wish to raise the issue of the community employment, jobs initiative and Tús schemes. These schemes play a very important role in the State and provide a valuable service to the community in the work on community centres, tidy towns, childcare, marking out the football pitches and other areas of the community. We really have to consider that these are core jobs and the community cannot function without the work of people on these schemes. There has been no replacement for the jobs initiative, JI, scheme. These were core staff who paid the wages and ensured the community employment programmes were up and running, there was work to be done, the pitches were marked and childcare was provided. All of those JI workers will retire in the next four years and they are not being replaced. We need to recognise that these are full-time jobs.These people are a core part of our communities and we must plan to replace these jobs in an orderly manner. I suggest that where a JI worker wants to continue working after he or she reaches the age of 65 that he or she is allowed to work for another year on a voluntary basis. Such a provision would help communities. We must plan an orderly replacement of JI as otherwise, childcare centres and community centres will close and the football pitches on which children play will not be maintained or marked for usage. These people provide core services to all of our communities in locations as diverse as the top of County Donegal all the way down to the bottom of County Kerry. I ask the Deputy Leader to arrange a discussion on this matter.