Statement by Minister Éamon Ó Cuív TD at the Roscommon/South Leitrim Fianna Fail Conference

A chairde

Tá mé ag súil go mór le bhur dtuairimí a chloisteáil agus na gníomhartha a tógadh le míonna anuas a phlé libh. Bhí ár bpáirtí bunaithe i gcónaí ar na baill agus ann ar mhaithe an phobail. Tá sé riachtanach go mbeadh muid uile airdeallach ar riachtanais an phobail i gcónaí. Bhí plé maith againn le muintir na Gaillimhe nuair a bhí comhdháil pholasaí mar seo ann le gairid agus cé go bhfuil cuid de na dúshláin céanna le brath sna pobail sin tá mé ag súil le tuairimí éagsúla mhuintir Ros Comáin agus Liatroma a chloisteáil inniu.

Tá cúrsaí fostaíochta mar chuid lárnach den mhéid atá idir lámha againn ag an gcomhdháil seo inniu. Tá dúshlán mór ag baint leis an obair mhór atá curtha romham ag an Taoiseach.

For many years, I have believed that unemployment is one of the greatest challenges that people face. People often think of unemployment purely in terms of income loss. However, it is also about dignity and confidence; the loss of something challenging to do every day; and the loss of social contact with workmates.

Unemployment has a huge debilitating effect on individuals, families, communities and our nation. I am very interested in hearing and discussing positive and creative ways of dealing with the immediate unemployment problems and finding new opportunities to create jobs in our areas where we have always been strong.

We are not unique in the world in having had to stabilise our public finances and our system of money but we have been ahead of many countries in doing so quickly. You know yourselves from daily conversations that Fianna Fáil’s popularity has been hit as we have gone about steadying our financial system, but creating new jobs and acting to protect badly-hit families are every bit as important. This is why the Taoiseach has restructured the key Government departments that deal with job creation, training, education, work activation and social supports to help people in a better way.

Changing the way we approach our existing resources can unlock the potential of new ways to create locally-based jobs. This is what the Smart Economy is really about. It is about the kind of thinking where a quarry owner or rock supplier spots the potential for their produce to become a high-end finished product such as a kitchen countertop rather than just bulk material for a house foundation. It is also to be seen in the way Fáilte Ireland are working with the B&B sector to refocus its traditional strengths on the new demands of overseas visitors coming here for activities such as hiking, biking and surfing. One could look at Roscommon as the only Connacht county without contact with the Atlantic Ocean and all the tourism business that goes with it or one can choose to look on the flip side where Roscommon has some of the most attractive inland waterways to attract overseas visitors. This is a sector that has already proven its worth in parts of Leitrim and it’s one where Roscommon can adapt to its natural strengths to generate new and sustainable economic growth. We must tap into the positive side of things we can choose to change rather than be trapped and frozen in the shadow of things that will not be.

One of the priorities I have been given in my new department is to place a particular focus on job activation. The new department brings a joined-up approach to looking at job activation in its wider context with income support. We need to try to create a better future for them with work activity in the short term, to upskill them and give them opportunities to get back into the mainstream workforce as speedily as possible.

One of the great challenges faced at present is that where families have gone from having two incomes to one, or worse from one to none. We are looking at activation opportunities for work for people caught in this mire.

The Rural Social Scheme, the Community Services Programme, the Community Employment Scheme and the Job Initiative scheme will all come over to my new department in the context of job activation. There are a lot of real needs in communities in terms of provision of after-school services, childcare and services for older people that we could address through these four schemes. There is also the semi-economic sector where we have rural heritage centres and tourist amenities, enterprise support units and the sports clubs with gyms and all-weather facilities that can generate some of their financial income, but that will always require some small state support from work schemes.

Le linn na mblianta rathúla rinneadh cuid mhaith infheistíochta i saoráidí áitiúla agus in ionaid pobal. Tá sé ar leas na tíre i gcoitinne go mbainfeadh an pobal úsáid astu. Feicim go mbeadh deiseanna ann chun cabhrú leo siúd atá dífhostaithe trí áiteanna a fháil dóibh ar scéimeanna oibre a bheadh ag déanamh obair riachtanach chun an t-úsáid is fearr a fháil as na saoráidí seo.

During the good years, there was much investment made in developing good local facilities. It is in all our interest to ensure that these facilities are used and well maintained. I am told that there are many jobseekers who would be very willing to use their skills and experience doing this work in their community and who would relish a place on a scheme involved in it. I am interested in your views on this as maintaining people’s employability through regular work activity will be important for getting people back into the competitive economy.

The new department will in time provide a one stop shop for people who face the terrible prospect of being unemployed. The Taoiseach has given my department the very sensible aim of ensuring that when a person visits his or her local social welfare office, the officials who deal with work placement will in time be working side by side with those dealing with payments. This will give a better service to people.

In the wider context, the re-organisation announced by the Taoiseach focuses on the main challenges that face us. We speak about an innovation economy but for that we must have the best systems for giving people new skills so they can avail of changed opportunities. In the re-organisation we will be able to tackle the issues of work and support for people and communities, and of upskilling, training and education.

One of the big things that genuinely unemployed people complain about is the forced inactivity. I will try to tackle that problem as quickly as I can. For years, I have argued that enforced idleness is not a great policy. We spend about €4.2 billion annually on unemployment payments and a further €0.5billion on activation. I want to use activation measures to differentiate between those who are genuine jobseekers and those who may not be genuinely unemployed and use savings arising from this approach to create more activation and opportunities for people to be gainfully involved in community work and so on. That is the where the big change will come about.

Moving people from welfare to work has been a life’s mission with me, and I did quite a bit of it during my time creating employment in a community-based business. We face a number of challenges in the next few years in creating opportunities for people to work but we will make progress by being positive and by finding new ways to draw on our traditional strengths.

Just as the first Fianna Fáil Government steadied our country during the bleak and turbulent 1930s economic crisis, the present Fianna Fáil Government stabilised our economy through tough and decisive action during 2009. There is no sugar-coating to disguise the bitter taste of the tough actions we have had to take, but this tough medicine is starting to improve Ireland’s financial health. We saw this past week from the April tax returns that our budgeting decisions are having a positive impact on our finances and that they are increasing international confidence in this country again. Other generations with far more meagre resources lifted this country before and we can and we will choose to compete with the best in the world again.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh.