One of Howlin’s silver linings turns out to be a hand-me-down from the previous government
The former Fianna Fáil minister believed she could get 89 extra training places from the same multi-million euro handout from the European Union.
One of the few bits of good news in Monday’s first installment of Budget 2012 appeared to be the announcement of a “new” €20 million Labour Market Activation Fund (LMAF).
Mr Howlin said this “new” fund would help “deliver upward of 6,500 places next year”.
However, the big problem with this “new” fund was that it was old hat. Worse, it was the same €20m pot which Ms Coughlan promised would create 6,589 places in 2010.
Mr Howlin’s speech, and strangely Fianna Fáil/Willie O’Dea’s reaction to it, never alerted the public to the fact that this LMAF was merely the continuation of a multi-year programme activated under the previous government.
The LMAF money is spent training a certain number of people in back-to-education courses for a one-year period.
As well as producing identical spending plans and similar training targets, both Mr Howlin and Ms Coughlan shared a reluctance in their announcements to highlight the fact the fund was part paid by the European Social Fund.
Furthermore the money would not have been made available if it was not spent in the way Europe wanted.
Mr Howlin explained his rationale for the €20m outlay in his budget speech and claimed he wanted it to assist those who are trapped in long-term unemployment.
But this philosophy was not at his discretion because one of the caveats attached to the European portion of the fund is that it goes towards supporting the over-35s and the long-term unemployed.
Ms Coughlan first introduced this programme by describing it as a bid to retrain people laid off from the construction industry.
However, by her estimates the €20m available in 2010 would deliver 6,589 places.
In 2010, once tenders were sought by training providers, a further €12m was announced to beef up its potential.
A recent consultants’ report, incorporating an analysis of the 2010 round of funding, said initially it had proved more effective than Ms Coughlan envisaged.
However, there was evidence that once courses were finished many could not find work.
PA Consultants said in 2010 €29.5m had been spent on 55 projects run by 42 companies and education centres. More than 12,600 people took up training opportunities under the LMAF and there was an 80% completion rate.
It cost, on average, €115 per week for each participant which the consultants said compared well with similar programmes funded through FÁS.
However, the LMAF has already been criticised for failing to properly track its participants and assess how successful its was at moving people back into jobs after their courses were completed.
PA consultants said one of the shortcomings of the LMAF was that it could not oblige people to keep departments informed about where they went after their one-year training programmes ended.
In the case of 4,000 people there was no data on whether they found jobs or returned to the dole queue.
Of 1,065 participants tracked on the Department of Social Protection’s database 786 were back claiming jobseekers allowance in October 2011.
