Labour TD for Cork South-West Michael McCarthy has welcomed the allocation of an additional 40 Tús community work placements for West Cork. “I am pleased to impart this small but positive nugget of news to people in the locality today. As part of the Government’s wider efforts to help jobseekers become job-ready and find employment, training or an educational opportunity, additional bundles of Tús placements have been allocated nationwide, including 40 specific places that are to be administered by the West Cork Development Partnership. These placements are specifically targeted at those who have been on the live register for over 12 months and who are getting a jobseeker’s payment. The placements will be based in community, voluntary and not-for-profit organisations, and the WCDP are the body tasked with matching the skill set of participants to the available placements. The duration of each placement is 12 months. “Community work placement initiatives play a critical role in local regions like West Cork where people might be experiencing long-term unemployment and immediate job prospects are limited. The scheme aims to keeping a person work ready and providing additional supports to assist them back into the workforce or to pursue other training or educational opportunities. Priority in this round of Tús placements has been to areas of the country where demand for work placement has been highest and where the local development company is able to deliver the placements quickly. In this context, I am glad that the needs within West Cork have been recognised and acted upon accordingly.”
12th February, 2013