Jobless not sweeping streets for extra €20, says Taoiseach

The Taoiseach has denied unemployed people are being “forced” to participate in a scheme that requires them to sweep the streets or cut grass for an extra €20 a week or face losing their dole.

Enda Kenny said the Gateway scheme, which has come under strong criticism in the Dáil, creates “so many opportunities” to get people out of the “rut” of joblessness.

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton also defended the work placement scheme for local authorities, which she said “promotes a sense of wellbeing”, and that participants “really enjoy contributing to their local community”.

But it came under sustained criticism, with Socialist TD Clare Daly saying it was nothing more than a “cheap labour scam” aimed at “massaging dole figures”.

She said it was an “insult” to suggest people out of work do not contribute to their community, and there were no “opportunities” involved in the scheme.

“They are being frog- marched to collect litter or cut the grass for local authorities. If they refuse, their dole payments will be cut and if they take on the work, they will end up poorer because it will not even pay them to go to work.

“What personal benefit could there be for somebody to be decked out in a high-visibility jacket in order to pick up litter when that person ends up poorer than when he or she got up for work that morning?” she asked Ms Burton.

The minister said the scheme aims to “improve the employability and work-readiness” of people by providing “good quality work opportunities with good employers in structured environments”.

But Ms Daly said there was not a “defect” or something wrong with unemployed people that required them to be “retrained through picking up litter for a county council”.

She said there were 3,000 retirements from local authorities last year which were not replaced because of a recruitment embargo. “The Government is replacing those people with this programme,” she said. “As a result, young people leaving school are being denied an opportunity to get what was once a permanent and pensionable job in the local authority.”

During Leaders’ Questions, the Taoiseach said he had spoken to some participants and they “like to be able to make a contribution to their communities and to get out of the rut of long-term unemployment”.

He said: “They are not being forced out. This opportunity is provided to a particular sector of the long-term unemployed.”

He was responding to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, who said it amounted to “forced labour”.