TUS- a ‘yellow-pack’ Community Employment?
December 12th, 2011 by john brown
One of the possible effects of the TUS programme(introduced by Eamon OCuiv in the previous Fianna Fail government) will be to produce a ‘yellow-pack’ version of Community Employment.
The TUS programme has no training allocation and the unemployed, who are obliged to participate when referred by the Department of Social Protection, receive only a top up of €20 on their social welfare payments.
The 2012 Budget allocation for the TUS programme is increased from €30 million to €84 million. In the same budget the allocation for Community Employment fell from€356million to €315million. The Back to Education Allowance has also been reduced from €198 million to €183 million.
In the previous 1980s recession the Coalition Government expanded the Community Employment programme to over 40,000 places for the unemployed and the Whole time Jobs Initiative and Social Economy programme created a further 5,000 full time jobs for the long term unemployed.
The real crisis in the economy is one of jobs rather than the sinking hole of public debt that the citizens are not responsible for. We need an expansion of quality initiatives such as Community Employment which includes training
This is the radical approach that should be adopted now. The allocation by Minister Howlin of €20 million for a new training scheme for 6,500 long term unemployed people should be considered as the first step in this direction.
3 Comments »
Leave a comment
John you need to get your facts straight about TUS before publishing articles like this. Firstly nobody is obliged to participate! They are obliged to respond and communicate with the Department but most people who are contacted in relation to TUS don’t get a position on the scheme as they don’t have to skills/area match required to fill the position. Secondly there is a training budget allocated to everybody on the scheme!
I’d advise you to get your facts straight before publishing articles in future
Comment by Ger — February 1, 2012 @ 4:45 pm
This is this kind of a good resource that you’re providing and you also give it away for cost-free. I enjoy seeing websites that realize the value of offering a prime resource for free. I really loved reading your post. Thanks!
Comment by Mickey Stoss — February 22, 2012 @ 7:10 am
You’ve got a good blog there keep it up. I’ll be watching out for most posts.
Comment by Zaida Wirta — February 22, 2012 @ 8:32 am