Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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262. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the amount that has been allocated to each local authority to support the gateway local authority activation scheme; if he will outline same on an authority basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10329/14]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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My colleague the Minister for Social Protection has put in place an initiative called Gateway to provide short-term quality working opportunities in local authorities for those on the live register for a minimum of two years. Gateway is fulfilling the obligation in the Government’s programmes Pathways to Work and the Action Plan for Jobs which sets out specific commitments to widen and deepen the way in which local authorities support labour market activation schemes. The recruitment process is currently underway in most local authority areas and it is anticipated that there will be 3,000 placements in local authorities by end 2014. As Gateway is providing short-term quality and suitable work opportunities for unemployed people who are economically, educationally or socially disadvantaged while at the same time assisting in their personal, educational and social development by carrying out beneficial work within communities, €2m has been allocated from the Dormant Accounts Fund , in 2014, to support the training and equipment needs of the Gateway participants placed within local authorities. Payments to individual local authorities will be made on the basis of placements provided and taken up by participants locally.

Following discussions with the County and City Managers’ Association, each local authority has been assigned a provisional target for placements relative to its size, as set out in the following table. The emphasis is on meeting the sectoral target of 3,000 nationally and accordingly there is a degree of flexibility in the attainment of the local targets, having regard to differences in scale, demand and capacity at local level.