Wanted: emergency budget

Sir, – It is now clear that austerity policies are not working. The domestic economy will remain recession this year. The Government has accepted that employment, consumer spending and investment will fall again. We are experiencing a worrying rise in income inequality, with nearly one-in-four in the country suffering from deprivation. Women and children are particularly adversely affected. We are entering into a lengthy period of low-growth, high debt and high unemployment, while creating a society with deep social injustices, not least for young people who have no sustainable jobs and no future in Ireland.

We need a Plan B. We urge the Government to adopt emergency policy measures that can create jobs, generate sustainable growth, raise incomes and reduce poverty. This is the only sustainable route to economic recovery and fiscal stability.

Such a Plan B must include a substantial investment programme directed at infrastructure, education and labour skills. From Next Generation Broadband to pre-primary education, to a modern water and waste system, we must create new wealth-generating assets that will grow jobs, income and the economy in a sustainable and environmentally just way. This can be funded from part of the €15 billion or more the Government currently holds in cash and assets.

We need to redistribute income from high incomes and large wealth-holdings to low- and average income-earners, whether they are in work or reliant upon social protection, or both. This will lift demand in the economy, boost enterprises and create new jobs.

This should be done through new taxation measures on capital, property and high incomes.

We need to end overall spending cuts in public services, social protection and community projects; these are depressing employment in the private sector due to declining demand for goods and services, while undermining public sector reform and efficient management. It is socially demoralising and politically damaging.

We need to face up to the burden private banking debt is placing on the economy. In particular, repaying the debts of Anglo-Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide is economically irrational and socially obscene. The total cost of bailing out these dead banks could exceed €70 billion over the next 20 years. The Government must take immediate action to renegotiate this debt with a view to redirecting these payments into investment, public services and living standards.

Repeating past failures is no longer an option. We, the under-signed, call on the Government to launch an emergency budget that will instigate a Plan B for jobs, growth and a socially just and sustainable Ireland. – Yours, etc,

AILBHE SMYTH, Feminist Open Forum; ALISON SPILLANE, Irish Feminist Network; ANASTASIA CRICKLEY, Department of Applied Social Studies, NUI Maynooth; Dr ANDY STORY, School of Politics International Relations, UCD; Dr AUSTIN CARROLL, General Practitioner; ANNA QUIGLEY, Director, Dublin Aids Alliance; Sr BERNADETTE Mac MAHON, DC, Vincentian Partnership for Justice; BREDA GRAY, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick; BRIAN DONOVAN, Business owner and Director, Eneclann Ltd; BRID O’BRIEN, Head of Policy, Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed; BRID MAGUIRE, Psychotherapist; Fr BOBBY GILMORE, Columban Missionary Society; Dr COLM O’DOHERTY, Dept of Humanities and Social Science,Tralee IT; CHARLES STANLEY SMITH, Former Chair An Taisce; Dr CHRIS MCINERNEY, Dept of Politics and Public Administration, UL; CHARLES GILLANDERS, IT Director; Dr CONOR MCCABE, Historian and Author; DEREK SPEIRS, photographer; DONAGH BRENNAN, Editor, Irish Left Review; FIONA FITZSIMONS, Historian and Director of Eneclann Ltd; FRANCES BYRNE, CEO, OPEN; Dr GAVAN TITLEY, Dept of Media Studies, NUI Maynooth; Dr HARRY BROWNE, School of Media, DIT; HELEN LOWRY, Chairperson, Community Workers Cooperative; Dr HELENA SHEEHAN, Prof Emerita, DCU; JAMES KELLY, Film Producer, Feenish Productions; Dr JOHN BARRY, Centre for Sustainability and Environmental Governance, Queen’s University; JOHN BISSETT, Community Worker, Canal Communities, Dublin; JOHN BAKER, UCD School of Social Justice; JOHN SUTTON, Public Communications Centre; JOE LARRAGHY, Dept of Applied Social Studies, NUI Maynooth; JOHN LONERGAN, former governer, Mountjoy Prison; Dr KATHLEEN LYNCH, Centre for Equality Studies, UCD School of Social Justice; LIAM HERRICK, Director, Irish Penal Reform Trust; LINDA KELLY, Cork Feminista; MALACHY BROWNE, Editor, politico.ie; Dr MARIE MORAN, Equality Studies, UCD School of Social Justice; Dr MARY MURPHY, Dept of Politics, NUI Maynooth; Dr MARY McAULIFFE, Women’s Studies, UCD School of Social Justice; MICHAEL BARRON, Director, BeLonG To Youth Services for LGBT young people; MAUREEN WARD, Chairperson, Irish Traveller Movement; MAJELLA MULKEEN, Dept of Humanities, IT Sligo; Dr NAT O’CONNOR, Director, TASC; NIALL CROWLEY, Equality Consultant; NIAMH McCREA, Dept of Humanities, IT Carlow; NIALL WALSH, Leitrim Sculpture Centre; Dr PEADAR KIRBY, Dept of Politics and Public Administration, UL; PHILIP WATT, former director National Consultative Committee Racism and Interculturalism; RACHEL MULLEN, Co-ordinator, Equality Rights Alliance; ROBIN HANON, Director, European Anti-Poverty Network; RONNIE FAY, Director, Pavee Point; Dr RORY HEARNE, Community Worker, Regeneration Co-ordinator, Dolphin House, Dublin; SIOBHÁN O’DONOGHUE, Director, Migrant Rights Centre Ireland; Dr SHEILA KILLIAN, Kemmy Business School, UL; Dr Stephen James Minton, School of Education, Trinity College Dublin; SUZY BYRNE, Blogger and Disability Activist; Dr TERRENCE McDONAGH, Dept of Economics, NUI Galway; THERESE CAHERTY, Irish Feminist Forum; Dr TOM O’CONNOR, Dept of Social Studies, Cork IT URSULA BARRY, School of Social Justice, UCD. C/o Parnell Square, Dublin 1.

The campaign is calling for the suspension of Anglo/INBS repayments as a first step towards renegotiation and writedown of the debt. The bulk of the re-payments are government issued “promissory notes” – a promise to pay money in future. Debt write downs happen all the time. A pause while we get a write down and stop rolling over and paying debts that are not ‘ours’ would be in line with the policy of both parties in government before the last election. Not that they seem to remember that. It is high time that they were reminded.

- The 300 richest people in Ireland are worth close to €50bn.

- Excluding housing values the top 1% control 34% of Ireland’s wealth.

- The government plans to cut expenditure, services and infrastructure twice as much as they plan to raise in taxes in Budget 2012.  The services that they will cut are more likely to be used by the 99% and thus cuts in those services will affect those on low incomes far more disproportionally.

- Over €8 million paid to 109 former government ministers in the form of ministerial/TD pensions. 30 of whom earn over €100,000 in pensions alone.

The campaign launched this week is not about increasing income tax and charges for those on low incomes but about taxing wealth and creating growth.  Something which successive governments have failed to do and the richest in Ireland have constantly found ways of avoiding taxes or have benefited from tax avoidance schemes.

Since activation is the topic de jour how about we activate some of the richest people in this still very wealthy country to step up to the plate and pay their fair dues?

This solidarity (because their country needs them!) could look like

1. A levy on assets and property worth over €1 million
2. High net worth Irish citizens paying their dues here so that the number of tax exiles decreases
3.  Eliminating tax breaks for those with high incomes so that they pay their fair share
4. A levy on financial transactions over significant amounts (Tobin Tax)
5. A higher tax rate on incomes over €100k

Claiming Our Future are calling on a change in the choices that are being made and the impacts of those choices.  Austerity harms our chances of recovery far more than taxing wealth ever will.

More on this campaign and how you can take action is available on the Claiming Our Future website. There is a lot more you can do other than signing a petition.  Start talking to friends, family and your public representatives about the values you want in society, the fairer, more equitable sharing of the load and the fact that cuts to services and incomes of the less well paid effect our economy badly as more people have less money to spend.

There is an alternative.

What Can Active Labour Market Policies Do, by Dr Elish Kelly, Dr Seamus McGuinness and Dr Philip O’Connell (ESRI) examines 50 pieces of research into initiatives in Ireland and internationally including.

• Job search assistance (where people are interviewed and directly and actively assisted to find work and training sometimes with threat of sanction if claimants do not participate,)
• Training programmes
• Wage subsidised programmes in the private sector
• Public Sector job creation.

The paper argues

effective job search assistance and monitoring should be the corner-stone of all services to unemployed people and serve as the gateway to employment and training opportunities, irrespective of prevailing labour market conditions. Even during a recession activation is essential to maintain connection with the labour market.

Significant resources have been invested in job search assistance, training and labour market programmes in Ireland.  There has been very little research into the efficacy of these initiatives here mainly because of full employment in the era of the Celtic Tiger.

In terms of private sector wage subsidies the researchers point to the general success of these programmes as forms of work experience and also job creation in the longer term but warn that there is often deadweight – this is where subsidies are given to create jobs which would have been created anyway.

From my examination of the research on internships JobBridge is not a wage subsidy programme but there is no doubt that there are real concerns about deadweight.

The researchers say it is too early to address the impact of Jobbridge. (Remember that if you see someone pointing to this paper as evidence that wage subsidy/jobbridge works!  There are other forms of wage subsidy in Ireland like PRSI subvention or cancellation where someone long term unemployed is recruited but take up is very small. And yes I know JobBridge is subsidising wages – in fact it’s obliterating them in many cases.)

Public sector job creation programmes are more extensively reviewed.  These include initiatives like Community Employment.  Researchers point to international evidence that long term employment prospects of those on such programmes are poorer, there is a stigma associated with such schemes.  Although there may be a social good with the work performed the employment prospects of participants are less likely to improve than those who are on training programmes or receiving job search assistance.

Overall the researchers point to the success of job search assistance and training initiatives which are combined with assistance in helping people find employment.  They welcome the changes in this sector in Ireland but warn there is more to be done.

However, it is as yet unclear how the provision of training is to be organised between DSP, SOLAS and the education and training providers. The core principle governing that relationship between activation and training provision should be that the transition needs to be seamless, based on the needs of both unemployed individuals and current and future employers.

I believe that, in general, education and training providers should bear in mind the potential for using, where feasible, social media to assist job seekers and those seeking further training and education opportunities.

For example, FÁS has recently launched a “Jobseekers App” that provides access to the FÁS Jobs Ireland website where jobseekers can find information on job vacancies, on JobBridge internship and Work Placement Programme (WPP) opportunities as well as on Community Employment vacancies.

FÁS has a number of Facebook pages and Twitter accounts relating to FÁS, JobBridge, the Work Placement Programme and Screen Training Ireland. These pages are used to provide information and updates on new programmes and courses, upcoming events and press releases etc.

But the Jobbridge twitter account has not tweeted any internship openings since September 28.  And their facebook page has not been used since July.  There is a lot of talk about JobBridge online though but it’s not FAS/National Internship Service who are conducting the conversation.

Screen Training Ireland has very few followers but has a very interesting output of items of interest to those who want to work in that particular industry. The Work Placement Programme (unpaid, no extra €50) tweets regularly.

Also of note on the subject of internships is legal advice emerging from the UK on unpaid internships and the breaches of National Minimum Wage legislation which are being committed.  UK Government agencies promote internships to jobseekers however several interns have taken cases to employment tribunals and won damages against employers for wages they should have received.

Meanwhile the Department of Social Protection have advertised this week for a consultancy to evaluate the JobBridge National Internship Scheme.  A social research graduate emailed me yesterday about her experience with the programme and commented with more than a degree of irony that ‘the only people being paid on this are those who will evaluate it.’

Today I will be attempting to Liveblog from the Claiming Our Future event in the Millenium Hall in Cork City Hall. Today's event is themed 'An Economy for Society'.

Claiming Our Future is a progressive movement for an equal, sustainable and thriving Ireland.

There will be over 250 people present from throughout the country to discuss their visions for society.

A livestream of the event is available here. The tag for the event is #cofideas

If you have questions about what is going on just shout and I will attempt to answer them!

Ged Nash TD (Louth) this afternoon has called exploitation of unemployed people on the scheme ‘shameless’. He called on FAS to ‘up it’s game’ in screening applications for internships from ‘employers’.

JobBridge was set up to give graduates and those coming off training schemes an opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills in the workforce with the potential to lead to full-time employment.

When done well and in the full spirit of the scheme, JobBridge represents a fantastic opportunity for both the employer and the intern. An internship is meant to be a structured learning programme for the participant, not a source of free labour for the employer, especially when it comes to those who post stratospheric pre-tax profits on an annual basis.”

There is substantial evidence in the public domain showing that some unscrupulous employers especially in the retail and hotel and catering trades are attempting to flagrantly abuse the scheme. The stacking of shelves and the carrying out of basic cleaning duties does not an internship make.

It is puzzling in the extreme as to how some of these positions managed to make it through the screening process in the first place and find their way on to the JobBridge site for a period. This lax practice should be discontinued immediately.

Earlier this week the Minister for Social Protection said that all positions were screened and that many unsuitable posts had been excluded.  Una Mullally in yesterday’s Irish Times reported however that the Department had only excluded 56 applications from ‘employers’.

Following the Minister’s statement defending the scheme in the Seanad it was established that Tesco Ireland have advertised 12 shop floor positions for six months for the Christmas season.  (145 posts in total) Some point to the need for internships in all levels and sectors, however surely these are supposed to provide experience and training and not free labour for companies that make billions in profits.

Deputy Nash’s statement seems to have been spurred on by this development.

No matter what weak defence is put forward, these posts aim to displace real jobs. It is sickening to see massive retail organisations, some of whom are generating profits in the hundreds of millions and operating at much higher margins in Ireland than in other European countries conniving to deliberately exploit a taxpayer funded initiative designed to help those who are anxious to get into the world of work and to map out a future for themselves.

This time of the year is one which usually sees employment created in the retail sector albeit temporarily.  Supervalu, Tesco and others advertising for retail assistants through internships surely can’t be in the interest of the revenue coffers, the EU/IMF overlords or more importantly providing experience and training to graduates or those who have completed training schemes.

Senator Jillian Van Turnhout who raised the need for screening and standards for internships in the Seanad expressed her concern that the scheme could be devalued by the lack of standards and training available.

As someone who comes from the community and voluntary sector I have seen how the community employment scheme became devalued over the years. My fear is that JobBridge will become devalued over time.

An internship should be something of which one is proud of on one’s curriculum vitae. It has a standard. An employer should know that if someone has done a JobBridge internship, they had to go through certain hoops and that there was a certain level of training and standards. My concerns relate to those aspects of the internship programme and this is why I have raised the matter.

*  I’m putting ‘Employers’ in quotes from now on when I write about Jobbridge until things change – If they don’t pay wages they should be called hosts.  Then maybe the right attitude to internships might be taken by all involved.

Farcically there have been more advertisements for internships for waiters (Food Service Personnel cough) and cleaner interns in Four Star Hotels in Cork and qualified beauticians in Malahide who will vajazzle you courtesy of a payment from the Department of Social Protection.   The  hotel jobs were pulled following direct action protests to the hotel by twitter and by email.

One could be forgiven in thinking officials in the Department of Social Protection who are vetting these adverts are doing it so badly on purpose in some sort of protest or attempt to try undermine the Minister and the entire programme.   Meanwhile the Minister and Martin Murphy of HP, chairperson of the Job Bridge Steering Group, are taking to the road to talk about the scheme. Next week they are in Athlone for a breakfast briefing (you can apply to attend)

They will speak about the scheme providing

quality internship in an organisation in the private, public or community and voluntary sectors. Its aim is to provide those seeking employment with the opportunity to gain valuable and meaningful, (my emphasis) work experience. By involving themselves in this internship, participants will enhance their skills and ultimately improve their prospects of securing employment in the future.

That’ll be no mention of cleaning, waiting tables, designing websites for free for furniture movers or vajazzling I assume.