The most recent Central Statistics Office report on the Live Register released last week made for gloomy reading. It showed that the standardised unemployment rate in September was 6.3%. That means there are now 244,500 people unemployed — a figure that looks set to continue increasing in the short term.

Although many of those being laid off have valuable skills and qualifications that might enable them to transfer to other sectors or countries, others will need assistance from the state to get them back into employment.

These are people who for years were in the habit of getting up, getting ready and going to work. Now they find themselves out of this routine; they are the newly unemployed. They have skills and determination, “get up and go”, and above all they have the desire to do a day’s work — if it is there for them.

Providing employment opportunities is part of the government’s remit, but its casual approach to date beggars belief. No new job-creation schemes have been introduced. The government sleepwalked into a recession and has yet to wake up to the need to address our growing unemployment problem.

We need immediate solutions to cater for the newly unemployed, those who cannot afford to be out of work, and those whom the government cannot afford to have unemployed. The current schemes lack the flexibility to get these newly unemployed back into the workforce.

The community employment programme is designed to provide eligible, long-term unemployed people with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a fixed-term basis. But you must be 12 months out of work to qualify for this scheme.

The job initiative programme provides full-time employment for people who are 35 years of age or over, but they have to have been unemployed for five years or more and in receipt of social welfare payments over that period. Both these schemes are run in conjunction with FAS, an organisation that itself needs a dose of reality about the changing labour market. Neither of these schemes has enough flexibility to include the newly unemployed.

What is needed is a new voluntary relief scheme, designed to cater specifically for those who have just lost their jobs. The introduction of a flexible and responsive skills activation scheme could use the latest technology to match the skills of those on the live register with that of jobs required to be done in and for our community and voluntary sectors. These are the types of job that are not routinely done and that have to be paid for by the exchequer.

The vast majority of newly unemployed people who have lost their construction sector jobs are under 35. Most have Leaving Certificates, and all have significant work skills and experience. They are ideal candidates for a skills activation scheme. With only a little imagination and some joined-up thinking, it should be possible to provide them with new work opportunities.

Currently many people are awaiting for work to be done for them under the disabled persons’ and essential repairs grants schemes. There is much that can be done in our parkland areas, and many of our train stations and bus stations are in need of serious repair — work that the government is not currently paying for.

All of this could be solved by the creation of a skills base, and by then using new technology to match the available skills with the jobs to be done. A simple scheme could reward those who want to carry out work that needs to be done. It’s a scheme that could encompass all professions, skills and talents; from accountancy to art. I am suggesting it as a voluntary scheme, and one that is financially attractive for all participants.

The scheme would be more or less cost-neutral, given the high expense, both financial and social, of unemployment.

To date I am far from impressed with the government’s response to try out new ideas even though 80,000 people have joined the dole queues. I received a similar response from FAS. I often wonder what the hell it was doing during the boom; it certainly wasn’t thinking about what we should do to combat unemployment in a recession.

Tackling short-term unemployment will require energy and imagination. My proposal would help not only the unemployed but our community and voluntary sectors that would be able to access their skills.

Damien English is the Fine Gael spokesman on small business and labour affairs

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