More than 800 dole recipients are starting work in Dublin’s local authorities as part of a national scheme to get 3,000 unemployed people working by the end of this year.
Long-term jobseekers will work in outdoor and indoor part-time positions throughout the organisations for their dole payment payment plus €20 a week. Those refusing to work risk having their benefit cut.
The initiative, called Gateways, is similar to the JobBridge internship programme where people get an extra €50 on top of their dole when they take up a full-time placement.
However, the new placements will be exclusively in county or city councils, and participants will get an additional €20 for working 19.5 hours a week for 22 months.
The State's largest local authority, Dublin City Council, is taking on 295 workers, South Dublin and Fingal are each getting 215, while 110 jobseekers are starting work in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.
The positions are described as “complementary” to the operations of the local authorities and include general operatives in parks, roads and environmental services.
Participants will also work in tourist-related activities, as “street ambassadors”, in IT support, and as environmental awareness officers, which can involve work in schools.
All participants have to be Garda vetted before they can take up the positions.
Candidates are selected by the Department of Social Protection, and their details are passed on to the council, which decides the most appropriate job depending on the candidate's skills, be it indoor or outdoor work.
Those chosen are the long-term unemployed – people who have been out of work for more than two years.
Anyone who refuses a placement can have their dole cut or stopped.
The scheme has been agreed with the unions representing council employees, and “no existing local authority staff will be displaced”, a spokesman for the Department of the Environment said.
The work must not duplicate that already done by the council or another agency, but must make a “meaningful contribution” to the delivery of services by the local authority.
In addition to complementing existing council services, the workers can be deployed to new initiatives.
The programme was announced in late 2012, to be introduced as part of the 2013 budget, but there was little progress in getting it up and running last year. However Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan said 1,200 positions would be available nationally by the end of next June, with 1,800 more in place by the end of the year.
"Participants can expect to be provided with good quality working opportunities that harness their skills and brings them back into active work.
Skill sets
"Additional opportunities will be identified for participants during their tenure to improve their skill sets and job-search capacities," he said.
The €20 top-up will be paid by the Department of Social Protection. Local authorities will in addition share €2 million from the Dormant Accounts Fund to finance any training or equipment needed for the Gateway participants.
Once a 22-month placement has been completed, participants must wait three years before taking up another Gateway placement.
