Address by Minister for Labour Affairs, Mr. Tony Killeen at the Opening of the INOU Conference

in the Royal Dublin Hotel on Wednesday on Wednesday 15^th November 2006

I am delighted to have been invited here today by the INOU to open this Conference titled Developing Policy through Good Practice-Removing Barriers to Work/Promoting Best Practice.

Employment is important to everyone. Having a job gives people self-esteem and a degree of economic confidence. I believe that it gives people a sense of value and worth to know that they are contributing to the progress of the economy and to society as a whole.

We have seen remarkable growth in our economy and in the number of jobs created in recent years.

Ireland’s current labour market situation is very favourable with employment growth of 4.6% (an increase of 87,800 jobs) in the 12 month period Mar-May 2006. This is the first time the number of persons in employment has exceeded 2 million. The unemployment rate is currently at 4.3% (among the lowest within the EU) and long-term unemployment at 1.4%. Since 1997, the numbers in employment have grown by 37% (549,300), the unemployment rate has more than halved and the long-term unemployment rate is about quarter what it was.

The employment growth figures alone provide a robust endorsement of the Government's pro-jobs policies. The so-called “jobless growth” of the early 1990s has long since been replaced by consistent employment creation.

The Irish economy continues to perform remarkably well and conditions remain favourable for a healthy labour market performance over the period ahead.

The Indecon report confirmed that the National Employment Action Plan process of referring people who are unemployed to FAS made a major contribution in helping people into employment.

However, we do still have too many people who are unemployed, and in particular too many young and long term unemployed people. That is why I think we do need to look again at the programmes we have to help support unemployed people into employment, to see if we can make improvements to them.

In recent months the Government has taken measures to provide additional support to help people into employment:

In July last, the EAP was extended to those aged between 55 and 64 years

In October this year, the Government reduced the unemployment duration threshold for referral from the Live Register to FAS under the Employment Action Plan. Now, all persons who approach 3 months on the Live Register are systematically referred to FÁS for assistance. As part of this process, FÁS Employment Services Officers provide intensive vocational guidance and assistance to help persons to enter or re-enter the workforce.

FÁS has also recently begun a pilot aimed at older women living between the canals in Dublin Inner City. This programme, which is a joint work and training initiative is a dedicated response to Permanent TSB for staff to work in their banks. The training programme, titled ‘Financial Assistant’, is an 18 week programme focusing on the core skills required for this work and personal skills such as Work-Life Balance. The training is followed by a two-week in-company placement with Permanent TSB. Successful participants (those who attain certification) will be invited to take-up a 9 month part-time work placement with Permanent TSB.

Four FÁS initiatives to encourage and help women in receipt of One Parent Family Payments who wish to move into employment, have also commenced in Cork and Dublin. This programme was introduced by FÁS specifically to provide a flexible, integrated suite of options to encourage women to return to the workforce. It is a needs-based, multi-step support and its application to other groups of unemployed people is being explored.

Nor must we forget that we need to continually improve our existing programmes.

The Community Employment Programme, while providing a mechanism through which people can learn the skills necessary to obtain employment; does not always result in the numbers progressing to employment that we might expect. Consequently, there is a need to provide a more structured and focused approach to facilitating progression for people from CE into employment.

Towards this end, the new Individual Learner Plan (ILP) currently being piloted in FÁS Community Employment is designed to track and record an individual’s progress from programme entry to exit.

Beginning with the identification of learning needs, this new approach addresses the personal, social, vocational and specific work-related needs of each participant. The ILP provides a stage-by-stage structure for planning, implementing, reviewing and recording all the learning activities undertaken by CE participants. As part of this process, each participant in advance of leaving the Scheme will participate in planning for exit and transition into further training or into employment. Part of this exit strategy will include job search, contact with FÁS Employment Services and/or work experience with a company in order to advance their employment opportunities.

We have also introduced initiatives aimed at those with particular needs, such as those with disabilities, travellers, former prisoners

The Wage Subsidy Scheme aims to assist disabled people access employment or the open labour market by providing financial assistance to employers and this scheme has a budget of over €10 million in 2006. This is complemented by other specific integration measures such as the Workplace Equipment Adaptation Grant, Job Interview Interpreter Grant, Personal Reader Grant, etc.

In addition, I am pleased to report that we have undertaken a special initiative for disabled people in Clare. The focus of this initiative is to address the issues laid out by IBEC and ICTU (as a result of the Workway initiative) about job readiness of disabled people for employment.

A range of initiatives are also in place to support Travellers. One of these is the development of the Travellers Internship Programme within the Civil Service. The primary focus of this programme is to provide quality temporary employment opportunities for Travellers within the Civil Service. This programme commenced in October 2006.

€1m has been allocated to provide funding for pilot initiatives aimed at supporting training and employment for Travellers. The aim of the initiatives is to redress the imbalance in Traveller unemployment; support the Travellers already engaged in the Traveller Economy and address the specific training needs of adult Travellers around the country to ensure the inclusion of Travellers in the labour force.

In addition FÁS works closely with the Probation and Welfare Service and the Irish Prison Service with a view to minimising the barriers experienced by ex-offenders when re-integrating into the labour market.

We must also increase our focus on education and training. The Expert Group for Future Skills Needs will shortly publish a study which emphasises the importance of upskilling our workforce. A key finding of the study is that, in addition to what we already have planned to do, we will need to raise by at least one Level in the NFQ framework the skills of over 500,000 employees. 300,000 of these workers will be at levels up to and including Leaving Cert or equivalent. This is a major challenge.

One of the key priorities for us in implementing this National Skills Strategy for the period to 2020 will be that of ensuring that we focus our resources on the low-skilled to ensure that they can fully participate in the employment market of the future.

‘Working to our Advantage’ – A National Workplace Strategy by the Forum on the Workplace of the Future suggests five broad areas for action, with 42 specific recommendations. Among them is the need to increase labour force participation by developing initiatives which will overcome employment barriers experienced by women, disabled people, lone parents and older workers, to name a few. As Chair of the Implementation Group for this Strategy it is my role to ensure that the recommended actions be progressed including:

focusing employers’ attention on the need for greater worklife balance to accommodate the needs of diverse groups;

enhancing measures that support women in returning to the workplace; and

the need for active ageing policies such as phased retirement.

The fact that this Group consists of senior representatives from Finance, Education and Science, Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Office of the Taoiseach as well as my own Department, along with representatives from Forfás, FÁS, IBEC, the Construction Federation of Ireland and ICTU means that a integrated and multi-level approach is being taken towards tackling the barriers experienced by these groups when taking up work.

Furthermore, the Government has expanded its commitment in tackling such barriers in ‘Towards 2016’. While we recognise that the timescale for the initiatives contained within this document seems too long; many of the initiatives proposed are being piloted or evaluated to see how we should move forward (as outlined above). However, I look forward to hearing additional solutions or actions required than those already initiated.

In conclusion, I would like to acknowledge all those who are going to make presentations about overcoming the barriers to work and also those who are going to participate in the discussion today. I look forward to hearing the findings of today’s Conference.

ENDS/LA217