Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Question 57: To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views that in the absence of specific safeguards the introduction of the Tús scheme may facilitate a driving down of wages, conditions and qualifications in this sector; and the steps she will take to guard against that. [15328/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Tús is a community work placement initiative which will provide up to 5,000 short-term, quality work opportunities for those who are unemployed for more than a year. Some €30 million has been provided in the Department's Estimates in 2011 to fund the roll-out of the initiative. This initiative is delivered through the network of local development companies and Údarás na Gaeltachta in Gaeltacht areas. General rules and conditions are currently being concluded with these companies to ensure that work placements offered by the not-for-profit, voluntary and community sectors are evaluated to ensure that there is no duplication or displacement of services offered by either the public or private sectors. It should be noted that these companies have considerable experience in determining these matters in respect of other Exchequer and European funded programmes. The boards of the companies include representatives of the local authorities, business, trade unions, State agencies and the community and voluntary sectors which provides significant additional safeguards.

In these circumstances, I do not consider that this work placement initiative, or indeed, other similar initiatives in the private or public sector would have the effect of driving down wages or could impact on the qualification levels of staff needed to provide services. Given the random nature of the Tús selection process, it is likely that good numbers of well qualified persons who are unemployed may be afforded opportunities to apply their skills across very different service providers.