Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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151. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will extend the time a person may stay on the Tús work placement initiative scheme from one year, particularly where participants are unlikely to obtain work from private sector employers due to either social issues or other reasons; his views that forced unemployment has a very detrimental effect on a person’s health, leading him or her generally to visit the doctor more frequently, take more medicine and suffer from higher morbidity; his further views that it would be a positive step forward to assist persons who are unlikely to obtain employment to stay engaged with work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20279/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Tús, the community work placement initiative was set up to provide short-term, quality work opportunities for those who are unemployed for more than a year. Tús is designed to break the cycle of unemployment, and maintain work readiness, thereby improving a person’s opportunities of returning to the labour market. For this reason, eligibility is confined to those in receipt of a jobseeker’s payment. These provisions are to ensure a highly targeted approach for those in danger of falling into long-term unemployment. While Tús is intended to help long-term unemployed people re-enter the active workforce, they are not full-time sustainable jobs.

Tús was introduced and the numbers on other schemes expanded as a direct response to the growth in the level of unemployment during the financial crisis. As the economic recovery takes hold and the overall level of unemployment falls, the Department recognises the need to adapt these schemes to the changing circumstances, opportunities and needs of jobseekers and others.

International literature regularly questions the effectiveness of work programmes in general as effective activation tools, citing concerns regarding the duration of programmes, proximity to the labour market, absence of job search, possibility of lock-in effects and poor outcomes in terms of employment among others. In order to be effective, research points to the need for any such schemes to be temporary and should not become a disguised form of subsidised permanent employment.

Furthermore, extending the period of participation on Tús beyond one year for current participants would reduce the number of placements available to other people who are long-term unemployed. The existing 12-month placement period on Tús is consider adequate at present to meet the objectives of the initiative whilst also ensuring that as many unemployed people as possible are able to benefit from it.

With the ongoing welcome reductions in the live register, a review of work schemes, including Tús, will be necessary to ensure that the number and nature of schemes and the conditions governing participation continue to be appropriate. I will be considering all of these issues over the coming months.

I hope this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.