The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is to increase expenditure on job creation and training by £50 million next year, according to the Government Estimates. This will bring the total budget for tackling unemployment to over £750 million, the highest ever.
The main increases are channelled towards IDA Ireland, the Local Employment Service (LES), FAS apprenticeship schemes and the Jobstart programme. The one area where there is no significant increase is the Community Employment programme.
The Community Employment schemes absorb by far the greatest amount of funds, at £290 million this year and £297 million for 1998.
During the election campaign the Coalition parties pledged that the number of places on the schemes paying the "going rate" - the hourly rate paid for comparable work in the private sector - would be increased from 10,000 to 25,000. However, the low increase proposed in the Estimates for spending in this area indicates that this promise will not be fulfilled next year.
On the job creation front, IDA Ireland is to receive a 12 per cent increase in grants to industry, bringing the total to £134 million. The big increase is due to foreign companies meeting their job-creation targets ahead of schedule.
The LES budget is being increased from £5.5 million to £10.7 million, up 95 per cent. This will allow expansion of the number of job centres from the current 18 to 27 during 1998.
The Jobstart budget also reflects the expectation of continued rapid expansion next year. The programme, which provides subsidies of £80 a week to employers recruiting people unemployed for three years or more, is to receive £8.5 million in 1998, compared with £5.5 million this year.
Another area targeted for large scale expansion is FAS schemes for up-skilling people already at work. The budget is increasing from £8.2 million to £16 million. Much of the increase is going towards more apprenticeships.
A halving of the annual grant to the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, from £66,000 to £33,000, holds no political significance, the Department said. In 1997 the INOU received a once-off payment of £30,000 towards the cost of new premises.
The Estimates of the Department of Public Enterprise contained few surprises. The most significant change is the doubling of the capital services estimate from £11 to £24 million. All of the increase is accounted for by extra provision towards the prospective cost of the Dublin Light Rail initiative - for which £20 million is earmarked next year.
The Government has increased the subvention to CIE from £105 million to £107 million, in line with inflation. This will be the last time CIE will receive a blanket subvention. From 1999 it will have to compete for the public service contract with other transport companies.
Last night the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said the estimates show that the Government has plenty of scope for more investment in social inclusion.