Fás work placement scheme relaxes original conditions

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA for a work placement scheme for unemployed young people will be significantly relaxed after it emerged that only 106 people had been placed out of a planned 2,000.

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan said last night that, following a review of the Fás-run programme, jobseekers and unemployed graduates will now be able to apply to companies with just one employee and to all sectors.

They can complete a nine-month placement instead of a six-month one, while retaining their social welfare benefits.

The work placement programme run by Fás, first announced in May, was open only to firms with 10 or more employees. Jobseekers had to be unemployed for at least six months and students had to have graduated at least a year earlier.

Speaking at the Ógra Fianna Fáil conference in Bundoran, Co Donegal, Ms Coughlan said recipients of most social welfare payments, including jobseeker’s allowances and benefits, will now be eligible to apply.

Unemployed graduates and 2009 graduates not receiving social welfare can also apply. The period for which participants have to be in receipt of a social welfare payment to be eligible, has been reduced from six to three months.

The revised scheme will be open to all sectors including the community and voluntary sectors. Under the revised guidelines, companies with one to 10 employees can take on one person; those with 11-20 employees, two; those with 21-30, three; and those with more than 30 can have up to 10 per cent of their workforce on placement.

Ms Coughlan opened the Ógra two-day conference, attended by some 500 youth members. Taoiseach Brian Cowen will give the keynote address today. Speakers include Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey and Road Safety Authority chief executive Noel Brett. The Tánaiste and Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe will talk on the “knowledge economy”. Motions include one from Trinity College that nobody working in the public service (including RTÉ) should be paid over €250,000.