Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

This question specifically concerns Gateway rather than the other initiatives which we can deal with at another time. The idea that people who are unemployed do not currently contribute to their community is an insult and this does not provide an opportunity for people locked out of work. What personal benefit could there be for somebody to be decked out in a high-visibility jacket in order to pick up litter when that person ends up poorer than when he or she got up for work that morning? People want a job and by implementing this, the Government is undermining local authority jobs. There were 3,000 retirements from local authorities in the past year and the Government, in essence, is replacing those people with this programme. As a result, young people leaving school are being denied an opportunity to get what was once a permanent and pensionable job in the local authority.

There is an example in the Minister's area of Fingal County Council, where the staff have been reduced by 20% over a number of years. As a result of this hollowing out of authorities because of the public sector recruitment embargo, from 1,300 staff there are now 21 people employed under age 30. That is consequent lunacy of a public sector recruitment embargo and the Government is patching the problem with this scheme, which is an insult to jobseekers and jobs.

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