Minister Burton, Ladies and Gentlemen
I am delighted to be here today for the launch of this report which shows that JobBridge, one of the Government’s first initiatives to reform our work activation services to support people in getting back to work, is delivering.
I am particularly pleased to be launching this report here in Linkedin; the world’s largest professional network and a key player in Ireland’s growing cohort of global digital companies.
Linkedin’s decision to base its operations in Ireland was a further example of international investor confidence in this county and testifies to the attractiveness of Ireland to international investors. It shows that the quality of our business infrastructure and, more importantly, the talent of our workforce are second to none.
Pathways to Work & JobBridge
As everyone knows Ireland has suffered an unemployment shock as the property bubble burst. Since then it has been the priority of Government to do everything we can to help get Ireland working again.
One of the key policy proposals from both the Labour Party and Fine Gael during the last election was the reform and modernisation of our welfare and work activation services.
The Pathways to Work strategy launched last year saw these plans being put into action. No longer tolerating a passive welfare system that abandons people to unemployment, it set about a total overhaul of how the State supports and engages with jobseekers.
Minister Burton has done stellar work since her appointment and is delivering on a huge programme of reform.
JobBridge represented an early step in that strategy. In an environment where employers are sensitive about additional costs new employment opportunities dry up.
JobBridge was designed to provide jobseekers with real opportunities to gain valuable experience, relevant knowledge and skills within a workplace environment.
Because the Scheme is open to organisations in the private, public and community voluntary sectors, and is used by organisations from large multi-nationals to SMEs across a wide range of sectors and activities, it offers a huge choice of work-experience options.
It also allows those organisations to tap into the wealth of talent on the live register and in doing so to give unemployed people a chance that they might not otherwise have had to gain relevant and invaluable work experience.
JobBridge’s success and attractiveness speaks for itself.
More than 16,000 people have commenced internships in more than 6,700 organisations since the programme commenced in July 2011.
This independent evaluation found that that in the region of 60% of JobBridge interns progress into paid employment within a 5 – 6 month period. This is about twice the European norm for such schemes.
In particular, the evaluation shows that the Scheme is effective in supporting those who are long-term unemployed to gain work placements. The report indicates that some 40% of those who take up JobBridge internships have been unemployed for one year or more.
The analysis also shows that there has been a high progression rate into employment of people who had been long-term unemployed prior to taking up internship. This outcome is key; JobBridge is making a real difference to long-term unemployment.
Jobless Households
This is a key objective of the Government. Addressing long term unemployment is now the toughest challenge that this Government will have to face.
The issue of jobless households and inter-generational poverty has been something that previous Governments have long ignored.
Recent ESRI studies has shown that even during the boom years, the number of jobless households was very high by European standards and was allowed to persist by a passive welfare system even in times of so called full employment.
I firmly believe that gainful employment is the best solution to poverty.
Getting Ireland working again is the priority. That is why if there is any flexibility in preparing future Budgets as a result of positive developments it will be used to pay for more investment and other measures to get people back to work.
We also have to ensure that the economic recovery does not bypass the hundreds of thousands of jobless households in Ireland.
It is essential for social cohesion and for maintaining public confidence in the social welfare system.
According to the ESRI, the proportion of people in jobless households increased from 15% in 2007 to 22% last year, double the average across Europe.
The Irish people can no longer tolerate or afford a passive welfare system that consigns large sections of our community to welfare dependency, inactivity, social exclusion and inter-generational poverty.
That is why further deep reforms to our activation strategy and our social welfare system are now essential for reducing joblessness and poverty, for maintaining public confidence in our welfare system and for ensuring the sustainability of our public finances
The Government, led by Minister Burton, has begun the process of examining the policies and supports that we need to put in place to reduce the rate of jobless households that will go on to form a new updated Pathways to Work strategy.
We have a lot of work to do.
We need to create more jobs that avail of the types of skills and talents available on the Live Register, with a particular focus on the construction sector.
We need more engagement with the long-term unemployed to identify their needs and the right opportunities for them.
We will need more training places and a training system that is much more responsive to the needs of the unemployed.
We need to remove the welfare traps that make it unaffordable for thousands of families to move off welfare and back into paid employment.
We need to do more to encourage employers to hire people who are currently on welfare. To this end we will launch the JobsPlus scheme in July, but this is only a start.
We need to cut down on the bureaucracy and complexity in our welfare system, reducing the scope for mistakes and fraud and freeing up resources for front-line activation efforts. I have asked officials to look at how we move to a single application process for all state entitlements so as to remove the 20 plus separate processes currently managed by different state bodies.
All of these issues will be addressed in the forthcoming Pathways to Work plan and I look forward to launching that strategy with the Minister in the coming weeks.
Conclusion
JobBridge is just an early example of what is possible when we all work together to solve the problem of unemployment.
I note that Martin Murphy, the Chair of the JobBridge Steering Committee, is also going to address you. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the outstanding work of Martin, the members of the Steering Committee and the staff of the Department of Social Protection.
I am confident that you will take this evaluation report and carry JobBridge forward into the future.
Let me conclude today by sending out a challenge to all those potential host organisations; in business and industry; in the arts and crafts; in the community and voluntary sectors.
Come - be part of Ireland’s recovery.
90% of host organisations responded that they would recommend participation in JobBridge to others.
We all have much work to do to get Ireland working again.
Thank you.