We're Not Leaving Branch Pack: April 2014

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Contents Introduction 4 PART 1 Getting in Touch 6 What is “We’re Not Leaving”? 7 PART 2 Youth Charter 11 Fee Hikes and Grant Cuts 15 Forced Emigration 21 Housing 27 Internship Culture 41

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JobBridge

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Mental Health 54 Precarious Work 59 Youth Unemployment 67

Please Note:

This edition of We’re Not Leaving’s Branch Pack was made available on Saturday the 9th of August 2014. As the Branch Pack is intended to be a living document, there may be an updated edition available.

Please check WereNotLeaving.com/BranchPack to view/download the most recently released edition.

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Introduction We’re Not Leaving is a campaign driven by young precarious workers, young trade unionists, the young unemployed and students fighting against the forced emigration of young people from Ireland.

The aim of this document is to provide information for those already active in the campaign as well as for those who are thinking of getting involved or who would just like to know more about We’re Not Leaving.

Part 1 lists some vital basic information about the campaign: who we are, how to find us, why the campaign began, etc.

Part 2 gives more information about the different areas that We’re Not Leaving have prioritised. It includes a copy of the Youth Charter, a list of demands agreed at the Young People’s Assembly held in Liberty Hall on 9th November 2013. This section also includes several research documents put together by We’re Not Leaving activists on each of the topics listed in the Youth Charter. It is hoped that these documents will allow all of us to have a better understanding of the various topics and to be more confident in discussing them.

We hope that this information pack will be a ‘living document’, that it will be adapted and changed as more information becomes available and as the campaign grows.

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PART ONE

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Getting In Touch National Campaign: Website: E-Mail: Facebook: YouTube: Twitter:

WereNotLeaving.com WNLIreland@gmail.com Facebook.com/WereNotLeaving YouTube.com/WereNotLeavingIRE @WNLIreland on Twitter

Dublin Branch: E-Mail: Facebook:

WNLIreland@gmail.com Facebook.com/WereNotLeaving

Cork Branch: E-Mail: Facebook:

WNLIreland@gmail.com Facebook.com/WereNotLeavingCork

Galway Branch: E-Mail: Facebook: Twitter: YouTube:

WNLGalway@gmail.com Facebook.com/WereNotLeavingGalway @WNLGalway YouTube.com/WNLGalway

North Kildare Branch: E-Mail: Facebook: Twitter:

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WNLIreland@gmail.com Facebook.com/WereNotLeavingMaynooth @WNLNorthKildare

What Is WNL? 2013 saw the centenary of the largest industrial dispute in Ireland’s history: the 1913 strike and lockout. But not everyone was happy about the way it was being celebrating. Many people were angered at the elite commemorations by government, political parties and a union leadership that had sold out the working class.

The commemorations led to a group coming together, calling themseves “1913 Unfinished Business”. In its own words, 1913 Unfinished Business aimed to “reinvigorate class politics using the centenary of the Dublin lock-out as an inspiration and focal point”.

The group put together a podcast series, which dealt with the story of 1913, women’s involvement, housing, the media, New Unionism, and Irish trade unionism today. The podcasts were released once a month throughout 2013.

1913 Unfinished Business’s first public outing was at an Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) march in Dublin in February 2013. A banner had been made saying “Unfinished Business 1913 – 2013” with the famous image of Larkin throwing his arms in the air, and was hung off the Ha’penny Bridge.

This led to a connection with the Dublin Council of Trade Unions (DCTU), who asked the group to organise a Youth Bloc at the May Day March. A public meeting was called in preparation for the march, entitled “We’re Not Leaving” in Wynn’s Hotel. Over 200 people attended the meeting to show their anger at the policies of forced emigration.

It was through this work that “We’re Not Leaving” was developed and it was decided to hold a “Young People’s Assembly” to look at some of the issues which had come out of the public meeting.

Further public meetings were held in Galway and North Kildare, looking at the issues relating to youth emigration.

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The Young People’s Assembly was held in Liberty Hall on 9th November 2013. Anyone between the ages of 18 and 35 was welcome to attend. Through group discussions, the attendees together came up with a Youth Charter. The Youth Charter sets out the primary issues that We’re Not Leaving campaigns on: precarious work and corporate internship culture; mental health; youth unemployment and forced emigration; housing; and fee hikes and grant cuts.

Precarious work and corporate internship culture When it comes to precarious work and internship culture, a lot of We’re Not Leaving’s work involves highlighting the spin in government statements about job creation and labour activation schemes. As well as this, we’ve been involved in supporting precarious workers.

We’re Not Leaving supported the Marks & Spencer’s workers when they went on strike to protect their pay and conditions in late 2013.

While the Galway branch helped the former workers at the Bentley nightclub on Eyre Square to organise and demand unpaid wages, in Dublin We’re Not Leaving has been taking part in solidarity actions with the Paris Bakery workers who are occupying their old workplace to ensure they receive unpaid wages.

We’re Not Leaving has organised workshops for students in IADT and at USI Congress on employment, employment rights, and trade unions.

The group has also been very active on internship culture, in particular in campaigning against the JobBridge scheme. We have been trying to counter government lies about the scheme, to highlight how it affects young people, and have protested with other groups against JobBridge.

Mental Health Mental health is a vital issue in Ireland today, not just among young people. The Galway branch has been particularly active on this issue, campaigning against cuts to acute 8

mental health services and working with other groups in the city. There is a plan to organise public talks in summer 2014.

Youth Unemployment and Forced Emigration The connection between youth unemployment and emigration has been a focus point throughout the campaign. We’re Not Leaving has worked steadily to undermine government assertions that youth emigration is a “lifestyle choice”. Alongside debating the issue on TV and radio, we’ve organised public stunts to highlight the issues.

In response to Fáilte Ireland’s “Ireland Inspires” video, the Galway branch released a highly successful response on YouTube. “Brand Ireland” looked at unemployment, social welfare cuts, mental health, and youth emigration. The North Kildare group also produced a short film about social welfare cuts for young people.

Housing In Galway, the group attended a protest outside the City Hall to highlight the issue of housing to newly-elected councillors. The group has been involved in documenting evictions in the city. The Dublin group is also getting more involved in housing actions.

Fee Hikes and Grant Cuts We’re Not Leaving has been working closely with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) on access to education.

We’re Not Leaving has also been involved in events which take in each of the categories. For example, the Dublin Branch organised “MayDay Fest 2014”. There were talks on each of the We’re Not Leaving charter issues, as well as others, such as LGBTQ in the workplace, Direct Provision and migrant rights, and reproductive rights.

We hope to continue our work in these areas, building links with other groups as we do so.

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PART TWO

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Youth Charter

Across Ireland a generational gulf is forming. Years on from the bank guarantee and the imposition of austerity, we now live in an anti-democratic society that locks young people out from basic social protections and the decision-making processes that impact on our lives and futures. The result is common negative experiences – such as fee hikes & grant cuts, youth unemployment, forced emigration, escalating mental health crises, corporate internship culture, lack of affordable housing, precarious and unpaid work – being aggressively foisted on us but not caused by us. We won’t accept this ‘new normal’ of increasing impoverishment or be their ‘safety-release valve’ through forced emigration. Young people played no part in creating this crisis of the wealthy, the corrupt and the powerful – and we will not tolerate these attacks on our present and futures to pay for it.

This is a call out to any young person who feels ready to take that step into getting organised with their generation to fight back against all the crap, against all the corruption, against all their attacks on our lives.

On Saturday 9 November at the Young People’s Assembly in Liberty Hall, the largest and broadest gathering of young people since the crisis began – for the first time bringing together students, the young unemployed, precarious workers and their representative organisations – started work on a common charter and strategies to get organised and fight back.

Facilitated by the We’re Not Leaving campaign, the Young People’s Assembly collectively produced the following: 11

PRECARIOUS WORK & INTERNSHIP CULTURE We demand: 1.

That companies be barred from displacing current paid workers with internship positions.

2. That a day’s work should equal a day’s pay – a living wage.

3. An end to the institutional normalisation of internship culture and the commencement of independent monitoring of

internship schemes.

4. Stability and security in the workplace in terms of hours,

income and location.

5. That the concept of “experience” should not replace paid work.

MENTAL HEALTH We demand: 1.

Universal access to free, local and high-quality public mental health services.

2. A collective and social approach to the de-stigmatisation of

mental health issues and that positive mental health be

promoted in the community, workplace and education system.

3. Recognition of the impact of precarious work, internship

culture, unemployment and poverty on the mental health of

young people in Ireland.

YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT & FORCED EMIGRATION We demand: 1.

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That young people who have been forced to emigrate must

have the right to vote in elections in Ireland.

2. An end to the recruitment embargo within the public sector.

3. The recognition of our status as adults in society.

4. That our trade unions be recognised and be allowed to

collectively bargain on our behalf.

5. Real job creation from the government instead of token measures.

HOUSING We demand: 1.

That quality, accessible housing be recognised as a universal social right – free from discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, age and/or ethnicity – and that this right is guaranteed by the state.

2. Strong regulation of landlords and developers in order to

control housing costs and ensure access to adequate housing.

3. That the state utilise the existing social-housing stock, as well

as properties belonging to NAMA and the bailed out banks, in

the interest of the public.

FEE HIKES & GRANT CUTS: We demand: 1. A third-level education system that is truly free at the first

point of entry that is funded by a system of progressive taxation.

2. A grant system be put in place for all stages of further and

higher education, which enables access to education for

everyone in society and reflects the cost of living.

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3. The recognition of the broader non-economic benefits of

education, as well as the recognition of the economic and

social role that the students of today will play in the society of tomorrow.

4. Solidarity between all student representative bodies and the

encouragement of political learning and engagement at all

levels of education.

This opening draft will be further developed in the coming weeks and months, but we hope this inclusive charter by and for young people will help us to finally come together in solidarity to organise and fight for an alternative Ireland for young people – for a profoundly different vision of social justice for this society.

We’re students, the young unemployed, precarious workers and mixes of all three – we’re angry and #werenotleaving. Get involved.

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Fee Hikes & Grant Cuts

Key Points • Since the abolition of university fees in 1996, the registration fee has increased from £150 (€190) to €2,500 and is going to increase to €3,000 in 2015/16.

• The experience in England and Wales has shown that a student loan system does not save money.

• Ireland has one of the highest levels of fees in Europe.

• Redefining “adjacent” and “non-adjacent” for the maintenance grant in 2011 had a huge effect on students.

Introduction In recent years students in higher-level institutions in Ireland have been faced with the dual obstacles of a steady rise in tuition fees combined with the erosion of grants which had hitherto offered crucial support. Since the advent on the economic crisis the burden of funding education has been transferred from the state to the individual student and their family.

This document focuses on post-secondary education in the Republic of Ireland, establishing the current situation before exploring the issues of fees and grants.

Higher Level Education in the Republic of Ireland As of the 2012/13 academic year, there were 206,706 students at higher level institutions across the country. 52% of students were studying at one of the seven universities, 42% at Institutes 15

of Technology, and just under 6% at other colleges. Education in Ireland has a noticeable geographic focus, 25% of the population live in Dublin but 42% of students are studying in the city.

Access to education improved throughout the early twenty-first century but equality did not. 21% of students come from lowincome backgrounds yet they are not represented equally among the various institutions. 18% of entrants to universities and 20% of entrants to colleges are from low-income backgrounds as opposed to 25% of those entering Institutes of Technology. Even within the ITs there is variation, as IADT and Dublin Institute of Technology are the only ITs with less than 23% of entrants coming from lowincome backgrounds.

Registration Fees In 1996 university fees for full-time undergraduate students were abolished (fees for Institutes of Technology had been abolished previously). There have been many efforts to officially reverse this position, most noticeably in 2004 and again by Minister for Education Batt O’Keefe TD in 2008/09.

Alongside the overt measures being taken to reintroduce tuition fees, there has also been a huge rise in the ‘student contribution’.

When tuition fees were abolished, a registration fee of £150 (€190) was maintained. The current rate is €2 500, rising to €2,750 in 2014/15 and €3,000 for the following year.

Ireland has one of the highest tuition fees in Europe. In Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany (except Lower Saxony), Greece, Norway, Malta, Scotland, Slovakia, and Sweden students do not pay at all. Students pay fees of well under €1,000 in Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Iceland, Montenegro, and Poland and the majority of students pay fees of under €1,500 in Italy, Liechtenstein, Portugal and Spain.

Recent governments have insisted that there is a crisis in higher level funding in Ireland and that students need to start paying.

One method which was suggested was a graduate tax, based on 16

the idea that graduates generally earn more than non-graduates.

However, this did not take into consideration what would happen to those who had dropped out or what would happen in situations of economic collapse or emigration. Recently, the graduate tax has fallen from favour.

Unfortunately, the introduction of a student loan system is still on the cards despite well-placed fears that such a scheme would put off prospective students from low-income backgrounds and that it is not a sustainable system. The experience from the United States shows the dangers of loading young people with generations of debt. Data recently released on the student loan system in England and Wales has demonstrated that such a system does not pay for higher education: after raising fees to £9,000 (€11,000) a year to “save money”, the Universities Minister, David Willets, had to admit in March of this year that write-off costs have reached 45%. The purpose of raising tuition fees was to save money, however if the write-offs reach 48.6% of all loans then the British government will have lost more money than it would have saved with the cheaper system.

The Department of Education and Science has also raised fees for apprentices, charging for student services apprentices can’t avail of while at the same time denying access to grants that students can receive.

Maintenance Grants Type Non-Adjacent Adjacent Special Rate

€5,915

€2,385 Full Maintenance

€3,025

€1,215 75% Maintenance

€2,270

€910 50% Maintenance

€1,515

€605 25% Maintenance

€755

€305 Maintenance grants are essential for many people to attend higher and further education. Almost half of all students are now receiving a grant, showing the growing numbers relying on the grant to get through college as family incomes tighten further.

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A 2010 study by the Higher Education Authority found that grants were of particular importance in ensuring students do not drop out of their course: “It is clear that grant support plays an important role in student retention, particularly for students attending the institutes of technology. This signals the importance of grants for the financial well-being of students and means that students are less reliant on part-time employment.”

People on the margins of qualifying for grants have some of the lowest higher-level participation rates. Longer distances are linked to lower participation rates for students from lower socio-economic groups, with the likelihood of attending college falling by 2.7% for every extra 10km living from college. So a less well-off student living 50km from college is 13.5% less likely to go to third-level than if they lived next to a college.

In 2011 the limit for receiving the “non-adjacent” grant was raised from 24km to 45km. A prospective student who lived, for example, 35km from the college they would like to attend are now classed as living “adjacent” to the college. This compounds the problems of accessing higher-level education for poorer students who do not live near colleges.

The destruction of the maintenance grant system does not stop at undergraduate level. Grants for postgraduate students have essentially been withdrawn. The SUSI (national maintenance grant system) website states that, “students entering new postgraduate courses are not entitled to any maintenance payment under the Student Grant Scheme 2013”. Those who had previously qualified for the grant can get up to €2,000 off their fees and those in certain circumstances can have their fees covered.

Although a postgraduate qualification is seen by many as a necessary step after an undergraduate degree – and in certain careers essential – it is the students who rely on financial support who are the most affected by these cuts.

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Other issues: This document has given a brief description of some of the major public issues in higher level education in Ireland at the present time: fees and maintenance grants. However, there are other issues which have not been discussed such as increasing access to higher level education by migrants, Travellers, and other minority groups; the increasing privitisation of higher level education; the undermining of independent research; or the precarious nature of employment within the sector.

Find Out More • • • • • •

Higher Education Authority Third Level Workplace Watch Union of Students in Ireland SUSI NERI, We Need to Talk about Higher Education (2014) European Commission, National Student Fee and Support Systems 2013/14

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How they compare: The Republic's third-level institutions

Universities University College Dublin University College Cork Trinity College Dublin NUI Galway University of Limerick Dublin City University NUI Maynooth Colleges RCSI Mary Immaculate St Patrick's Drumcondra NCAD St Angela's College of Education Mater Dei Institute of Education Institutes of Technology Dublin City University Cork Waterford Galway-Mayo Sligo Limerick Athlone Carlow Tallaght Dundalk Letterkenny Tralee Blancharstown IADT Tipperary (now part of LIT) All HEA institutions

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Total Enrolment Low-income backgrounds

Drop-out % in first year

106,269 23,600 17,366 16,486 16,479 11,890 10,954 9,485 11,621 3,475 2,980 2,584 1,145 900 776 80,097 15,459 9,189 8,074 6,523 5,275 4,984 4,885 4,869 4,754 4,660 2,969 2,711 2,525 2,205 1,015 198,178

9% 9% 9% 8% 9% 9% 11% 10% 4% n/a 5% 3% 5% n/a 4% 18% 13% 23% 21% 22% 10% 18% 11% 18% 25% 13% 4% 12% 18% 14% n/a 11%

18% 17% 19% 14% 20% 20% 19% 24% 20% n/a 18% 20% 16% 13% 24% 25% 22% 24% 24% 24% 28% 24% 27% 26% 28% 23% 28% 25% 29% 20% 28% 21%

Forced Emigration

Key Points • 10 people leave every hour (April 2012-2013) • 397,500 people have emigrated since 2008 • Ireland’s population shrank as a result of emigration by more than any other EU member state in 2012.

• Almost a quarter of emigrants in 2012/13 went to Britain, while 17.3% went to Australia.

• 47% of emigrants (2008-13) were in full-time employment before departure – their reasons for emigrating were about the quality of employment in Ireland and their chances of improvement.

• 31.9% of adults have had an immediate family member emigrate since 2006, while 43.9% have had an extended family member leave. 61.9% of people have had a member of their “circle of friends” leave since 2006, rising to 85.4% in the 20-30 age group.

Introduction The history of Ireland has been marked by emigration: the Great Famine; economic stagnation in the new Irish Free State and Republic; economic problems in the 1980s; and now again in the context of the bank bailout, bust and recession. Emigration throughout Irish history has, and continues to be, based on the failures of an economic and social system and the failures of government policy, with devastating effects for families, communities and society as a whole.

This document looks at emigration since the onset of the economic recession in 2008, with particular emphasis placed on youth 21

emigration. It will also briefly explore the reasons for emigration, the experiences and failed response to the crisis.

The Figures The estimate of emigration from the onset of the economic recession in 2008 to the end of 2013 sits at 397,500 people. In a country of just under 4.6 million people, this is a hugely significant number.

Emigration totalled 87,100 in 2012 and 89,000 in 2013. The total number of those immigrating to a country minus the total number emigrating from that country is referred to as “net migration�. In Ireland, net migration showed a decrease of 34,400 people in 2012 and 33,100 in 2013. This means that 10 people were leaving Ireland every hour in 2013. In 2012 Ireland’s population shrank as a result of emigration by more than any other EU member state.

Emigration has had a particular impact on young people: more than 40,000 of the 89,000 who left in the 12 months to April 2013 were less than 24 years of age. An estimated 177,000 15-24 years olds left the country between 2008 and April 2013.

Context The basic push factor for emigration is a lack of jobs.

Putting this in a broader context, unemployment rose from below 5% to over 15% and the cost of attending higher level education 22

rose while at the same time maintenance grants were cut, social protection was pared back, and GNP declined by around 10%.

A major study into emigration from Ireland, known as the UCC émigré report, supports the view that emigration has been caused by the economic recession rather than being a lifestyle choice. The survey shows that 17% of emigrants from Ireland had previously been directly employed in construction, the hardest hit industry in the recession.

The UCC report explicitly states that “between 2006 and 2013 gross emigration of Irish people was in the order of 213,000 persons in total, rising from just over 13,000 in 2005 to almost 51,000 in the year ending March 2013, an increase of nearly 400% in the seven years from the pre-crisis period in the Irish economy to the present.

In itself, this gives the lie to the notion that emigration is purely a matter of ‘lifestyle choice’.”

When discussing the links between employment and emigration, it is important to highlight that what we mean by “employment” is not just job creation; it is also about pay and conditions, quality of work and the fit between qualification and job. For example, 47% of those who emigrated since the economic collapse had been in full-time employment, yet 43.6% of that group left to find another job or to gain professional experience not available to them at home. Some of their reasons for leaving included working here in areas unrelated to their qualifications, the temporary nature of work contracts, and the prospect of earning a higher salary abroad.

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Underemployment is also considered a major push factor. An April 2013 reports from the IMF indicated the combined unemployment and underemployment level to be 23%. Large segments of emigrants from 2008-2013 (47.1%) were leaving from employed positions largely because conditions and pay were not adequate.

Cost cutting across the Irish economy was forcing people to leave

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Consequences As well as describing those who had left and giving the first indication of their reasons for leaving, the UCC report also highlights the impact that emigration has on those left behind. 31.9% of adults have had an immediate family member emigrate since 2006, while 43.9% have had an extended family member leave. 61.9% of people have had a member of their ‘circle of friends’ leave since 2006, rising to 85.4% in the 20-30 age groups.

The impact on rural areas, already isolated, has been particularly acute for many young people. Although 16% of households nationally have experienced the emigration of a member since 2006, the number rises to 1 household in 4 in rural areas. Irish Rural Link chief executive Seamus Boland said rural areas were being hammered by emigration, with nine out of 10 young people considering leaving the country to find work.

Attitudes and a policy of emigration?

The government’s attitude to emigration has seemed muted at best and callous at worst. The minister of State for Small Business, John Perry TD, illustrated this in his statement that much emigration was “by choice”.

In January 2014 this narrative seemed to have shifted slightly as An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD, stated that many left to “get experience”. In both cases the blame was shifted from the failure of an economic and social system and a failure of government to a nice decision made by the young.

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Failures to tackle emigration, indications of disconnect and disinterest or even disregard for the devastating damage of emigration is compounded by the possibility that emigration is actually government policy. Emigration as a means of lowering unemployment and as a “safety valve” against discontent is well documented in Ireland’s recent history. Iin 2013, 4,000 letters were sent out to social welfare recipients highlighting the possibility of jobs abroad.

Conclusion This document has demonstrated that emigration from Ireland is not “a lifestyle choice” and instead establishes that the causes for emigration are the bailout, recession and ongoing youth crisis.

Emigration figures are an indictment of Ireland’s economic failures and the failures of government policy.

This document will grow as more figures relating to emigration become available. However, the lack of government research into emigration is an indication of the level of regard that emigrants are held in by elected representatives.

Find Out More • Irial Glynn, Tomás Kelly and Piaras MacÉinrí, Irish Emigration in an Age of Austerity (Cork, 2013) • CSO

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Housing

Key Points • On average, 2 people exit homelessness in Dublin every day.

However, there are 6 new presentations each day.

• The Dublin Region Homeless Executive expects to spend €4.5 million on emergency hotel accommodation for homeless families in 2014, compared to €1.3 million last year and €455,000 in 2012.

This is a 10-fold increase.

• There were 230,056 vacant dwellings in Ireland at the time of the last census in 2011 (not including holiday homes).

• There are 89,000 on the local authority housing waiting list (probably more).

• 40% of students have had their deposit unfairly withheld.

• Over €50 million was under-spent by local authorities on Traveller accommodation in 2007-2012.

• 3,600 Travellers or 11% of the Traveller population in the Republic are officially homeless.

• There are currently 4,278 asylum seekers living in direct provision centres around Ireland, of which 1,590 are children.

• There are 34 direct provision centres around the country, only 3 of which were purpose built.

• At the end of 2012, 59% of those in Direct Provision had been living in the system longer than 3 years; 31% for more than 5 years; and 9% for longer than 7 years.

Introduction The gathering crisis of housing and homelessness is finally starting to become clear. Housing lists, inability to pay mortgages, overpriced 27

rents, lack of protection for renters, and the undermining of social housing are only some of the problems leading towards a housing crisis. Alongside these are the longstanding issues of Direct Provision and housing for Travellers.

It is not possible to give a full account of the many and varied issues relating to housing in Ireland at the present time. Instead, this report aims to briefly introduce some of the most important issues for understanding and campaigning.

Construction and the economy It is necessary to quickly review the recent history of housing in Ireland so as to properly understand not just how the current situation developed but also to understand the viewpoint of those who wish to see this form of speculation and bubble continue.

An emphasis on construction has been a constant feature of the Irish economy since independence. In Sins of the Father Conor McCabe explains how successive governments have used construction as a method of concealing structural deficiencies within the economy.

For example, the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax scheme was introduced in the 1960s and brought a steady stream of income to support the government grants, tax exemptions, and office rents which went to fund speculation. The Kenny Report (1974) aimed to stop speculation in the construction industry and was shelved for that very reason.

From the 1970s onwards, the state began to increasingly rely on construction as a method of bolstering the economy. By 2006, 13% of the workforce was employed in the construction industry (rising to 22.6% of employed males). This was well above the EU average of 7.9% and was the highest dependency among all EU countries.

That same year the construction industry accounted for 23% of output in the economy, relative to only 14% ten years previously and an EU average of 12%.

While government spokespeople may point to skyrocketing rents and house prices as a “return to the good old days�, it is necessary 28

to recall that speculation and an over-emphasis on construction led to a bubble (and its eventual bust): “construction and services can only work as an aid to growth; in Ireland they had become growth itself”.

Homelessness 3,808 people were recorded as homeless in Census 2011. 3,744 were in accommodation and 64 were sleeping rough. 62% were living in Dublin. It is estimated that over 5,000 people are now homeless in Ireland.

Charities and agencies working with homeless people have been attempting to highlight the rising numbers using their services.

The Peter McVerry Trust helped 3,586 homeless people in Dublin in 2013, a 17% rise on 2012. In November 2013, Focus Ireland revealed that it had provided assistance to 9,237 people who were either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless throughout the country, a jump of almost 1,500 from the year before. 139 people were recorded as sleeping rough in Dublin on 12th November 2013. In April 2014, the Inner City Helping Homeless group logged 2,241 rough sleepers that they had fed and clothed in the space of 28 nights.

Alice Leahy, director of the homeless agency Trust, has stated that those working with homeless people “are now coming across conditions long disappeared since the advent of good food e.g. malnutrition, trench foot and impetigo – conditions clearly associated with extreme poverty”.

Common ideas about who becomes homeless or the reasons for homeslessness are not only inaccurate but also conceal much of the experience of homelessness in Ireland today. According to the Simon Community, homelessness “can mean sleeping rough, staying in emergency hostels or shelters, staying in temporary bed and breakfast accommodation or staying with friends and relatives when there is nowhere else to go. Homelessness is all of these things. For people experiencing homelessness it is about a lack of security, a lack of belonging and often about being cold, sick 29

and isolated.” The document reproduced at the end of this report, European Typology of Homelessness and Housing Exclusion, lists various forms of homelessness.

A study by Cork Simon into homelessness in the city found that 92% of homeless people in Cork were unemployed by the time they got to an emergency shelter, 80% had legal troubles, 78% were early school leavers, 76% were unskilled, and 68% were diagnosed with a mental health condition. Commenting on the report, Dr Niamh Hourigan of UCC said that “the report shows that homelessness often occurs after early deprivation and school-leaving, addiction and mental health problems have already taken their toll”.

The number of families becoming homeless has become an issue of particular concern in recent months, as the numbers in the capital have jumped from 8 to 16 per month. Rising rents, a cap on rent allowance, and a lack of suitable rental housing are being blamed as some of the immediate causes of families not being able to stay in their homes. Alongside this, banks have warned that as many as 25,000 mortgage holders face having their homes repossessed or forcibly sold.

The lack of appropriate accommodation for families to move into has led to unsuitable and unsustainable responses by local authorities: the Dublin Region Homeless Executive expects to spend €4.5 million on emergency hotel accommodation for homeless families this year, compared to €1.3 million last year and €455,000 in 2012.

Although 2 people on average exit homelessness in Dublin per day, there are six new presentations each day.

Rent Supplement Rent Supplement is paid to people living in private rented accommodation. The amount of Rent Supplemented is calculated to ensure that income after paying rent does not fall below a minimum level. For a parent or couple with three children renting in Dublin the maximum rent per month is €1,000.

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Rent Supplement is based on the “maximum rent” limit for each county. Anyone in full-time employment (over 30 hours per week) cannot qualify for Rent Supplement. Even if only one partner in a couple is working full-time, the couple is excluded from the scheme.

Single people must pay at least €30 a week towards the rent while couples pay at least €40.

There have been a number of changes to rent supplement rates in Ireland since 2009, including reducing the maximum rent limit, increasing the tenant contribution, and tightening eligibility. These changes have been linked to the increase in problems accessing housing over the past number of years.

A survey by Focus Ireland noted that interviewees found it very difficult to access private rented accommodation and reported the “widespread experience that most landlords are reluctant to accept Rent Supplement”. Interviewees also explained that they felt they had no alternative other than declaring a lower rent to the Department of Social Protection and paying a top-up to the landlord.

Niamh Randell, national spokesperson for the Simon Community, called for rent supplements to be raised to come in line with “real rents”. Threshold, the national housing charity, has called for a “better rent supplement scheme”. They propose that a new payment scheme be based on income rather than employment, meaning that tenants could take up paid work without losing all of their rent supplement payment, as well as the payment of rent supplement directly to landlords.

A major focus in regards rent supplement is the amount of public money going to private landlords. In 2013 the top 20 landlord recipients received €5million between them. One received €578,000 in respect of 114 apartments. As of January 2014, 55,000 people had been on Rent Supplement for more than 18 months.

Social Housing According to the Housing Authority, “social housing support is 31

housing provided by a local authority or an Approved Housing Body to people who cannot afford housing from their own resources.

Local authorities are the main providers of social housing support in Ireland. There are a number of ways a local authority provides housing: • A social rented tenancy in property owned and managed by the local authority.

• A social rented tenancy in property owned and managed by an approved housing body.

• A tenancy in a property the local authority is managing or has leased from a private property owner.

• A RAS (Rental Accommodation Scheme) tenancy where the local authority arranges short or long term leases with private landlords for particular properties. (People in receipt of rent supplement for 18 months or longer are eligible to apply for this type of accommodation). […] As a tenant in social housing support, you are required to pay rent to the local authority. How much rent you pay depends on your income and household size.”

The list provided by the Housing Authority highlights the manner in which private landlords benefit from public housing schemes.

Conor McCabe explains that some of the most important actions in destroying social housing happened in the 1980s: in 1984 the Surrender Grant Scheme was introduced; in 1988 Section 23 Tax Relief was reintroduced; and local authorities bowed out of residential mortgage provision. By 1991/92 the high-point of owneroccupancy in Ireland had been reached (79%). By the early 1990s, 220,000 of the 330,000 public housing units in the state had been sold to tenants Mick Byrne, a post-doctoral scholar at the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis, has investigated more recent developments: “Throughout the last decade social housing complexes in Dublin and Limerick were to be redeveloped under ‘public-private partnerships’ that relied on private finances. The local authority would give public land to developers for free, and 32

the developer would build new social housing units while making a tidy profit from the construction of additional private housing.

“If redeveloped social housing at no cost to the Exchequer sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. City Councils didn’t stop to think what would happen if the bubble burst, or pause to consider the fact that developers such as MacNamara/Castlethorn, who were awarded three massive regeneration contracts, were among the most indebted in the country. In other words, no one stopped to think about the inherent contradictions of finance and property.

“But if you live by the sword, you die by the sword – once property prices dropped the redevelopments ran aground, leaving the communities of O’Devaney Gardens, Dominick Street, Croke Villas and St Michaels Estate (to name a few) with nothing but vacant lots and empty promises”.

Within this context it is unsurprising that, despite the spiralling numbers with housing difficulties, there has been little done to increase the store of social housing since the start of the economic 33

crisis. In 2007, almost 7,000 local authority homes were built or acquired by local authorities. In 2013, just 546 were built, a reduction of just over 92%.

There are officially 89,000 households on the national waiting list for local-authority housing, up from 56,000 in 2008. However, as the Housing Agency figure is a year old, the current number could be more than 100,000 households.

One in five applicants has been on their local authority’s waiting list for more than 5 years and almost 10% have been waiting for more than 7 years. The problem is most acute in Dublin, with more than a third of all those waiting for council housing in Dublin city and county.

Minister of State for Housing, Jan O’Sullivan TD, has announced that 2,700 homes will be made available by the end of 2016, including buildings from local authorities and NAMA. Construction 2020, the plan for a renewed construction sector, was launched by the government in the week before the local and European elections in May 2014. It aims to triple housing output by the end of the decade and to add 60,000 jobs to the construction sector. One particular proposal – the help-to-buy scheme - has been criticised as a return to the policies which created the property bubble.

Fr Peter McVerry has said that “I think the flaw in it is that it is an attempt to find a low cost solution to homelessness when there isn’t one. The second flaw is that we are in this mess because the Government withdrew from controlling local authority housing themselves and depended on the private sector to provide social housing. That failed and this relies very heavily on the private rental sector to soak up homelessness”.

Vacant Homes and NAMA There were 289,451 vacant dwellings in Ireland at the time of the last census in 2011. The vacant dwellings consisted of 168,427 houses, 61,629 apartments, and 59,395 holiday homes. While the number of vacant houses had fallen by 4% from the previous census in 34

2006, the number of vacant apartments had increased by 48% in the same period.

In 2010 there were 2,800 unfinished housing estates. By 2012 1,770 developments remained unfinished (approximately 1,100 were in a seriously problematic condition). Some had been removed from the “unfinished� list because they were substantially completed while others were removed because development never commenced.

It is not a surprise that many people have been outraged by the fact that there is this number of empty homes in a country with increasing levels of homelessness. However, the housing problem cannot be solved merely by sending all those with housing trouble to empty estates around the country as many of the empty homes are in areas with very weak transport links, no social services, and high unemployment.

It has been suggested that the NAMA buildings should be put to use housing people. However, again this runs into problems. NAMA has around 16,000 properties but only 16.6% of NAMA properties are residential (consisting of 8,000 apartments and 2,000 houses).

NAMA has identified about 2,000 units it believes are suitable for housing in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway but about 1,000 of those units have been rejected because of fears of social housing 35

concentration. NAMA has delivered 684 housing units to local authorities and voluntary housing bodies so far this year, the majority of which have been tenants.

Students Young people and students are particularly vulnerable in the private rental market. Research done by USI discovered that 40% of students have had their deposit unfairly withheld; 75% of cases reported to the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) were in relation to deposit retention; and over 60% of students have had over €200 unfairly taken off their deposit. Instead of treating the deposit as insurance that the terms of the lease be complied with, the report found landlords using it as income.

Even students in college accommodation are not protected from unscrupulous landlords as the cost of on-campus accommodation is set to rise by 13% for the 2014/15 year in Dublin.

Traveller Accommodation According to Pavee Point, there are about 36,000 Travellers and 3,000 Roma living in the Republic of Ireland.

Already underfunded, many of the cuts in the austerity budgets have directly targeting Traveller initiatives: Traveller-specific accommodation has been slashed from €70m to €40m. The Irish Traveller Movement has highlighted that between 2007 and 2012, over €50 million was under-spent by local authorities on Traveller Accommodation allocations. Despite a request by the Minister of State, Jan O’Sullivan TD, to the local authorities no explanation has yet been given for this.

The ITM have also pointed out that “currently 819 Traveller family units are required, 3,600 Travellers or 11% of the population in the Republic are officially homeless and yet in 2013 there is only €4 million available as capital and €2 million for current funding due to cuts in Traveller Accommodation budgets which have been reduced from €70 million since 2000. A further reduction to €3 36

million is planned for 2014.”

The ITM notes the significant increase in Traveller families being placed into private rented accommodation: 162 families in 2002 to 2,829 in 2012. This is contrary to the requirements outlines in the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998. Since the first Traveller Accommodation Plan in 2000 stated a gross need of 3,629 units of accommodation, there have only been 864 new units provided and 591 refurbished. 47 units providing for nomadism via Transient provision are being used for emergency accommodation.

Direct Provision When the system of “direct provision” for asylum seekers was introduced in 2000 it was envisaged that people would spend no more than six months in the system while they awaited decisions on their asylum application. At the end of 2012, 59% of all residents had been in direct provision for longer than 3 years; 31% for more than 5 years; and 9% for longer than 7 years.

There are 34 direct provision centres around the country, only 3 of which were purpose built.

There are currently 4,278 asylum seekers living in direct provision centres around Ireland, of which 1,590 are children. An EU-wide report found that Ireland is one of just 5 states which does not offer tailored accommodation for vulnerable asylum applicants (other than unaccompanied minors).

The lives of residents are governed by unnecessarily restrictive rules e.g. being obliged to eat the food prepared by the centre and not being allowed to cook or to have food in one’s room. The weekly allowance for asylum seekers in direct provision is €19.10 per adult or €9.60 per child (this has not increased since the system was introduced in 2000). All EU states other than Ireland and Lithuania allow asylum applicants to work.

Privacy is a significant issue. Single (non-married) residents share a room with several other adults, and parents live in one room with their children. Facilities such as bathrooms are often shared.

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Residents do not have access to an independent complaints mechanism. If an issue affecting a resident’s security or health and welfare arises then the resident has no option but to raise it first with the management of the individual centre and then with the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA). Asylum-seekers are reluctant to complain because of the possibility of retaliation from management or that it may negatively impact their relationship with the Department of Justice.

Dr Geoffrey Shannon, Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, says that living in direct provision can have a “detrimental effect on children. If we look at the conditions in the centres, by any standard it could not be said to equate to normal family living. These families live in very restricted accommodation, and this can have a profound impact on the mental health of adults and children.”

Conclusions This report has attempted to set out some of the major issues to do with the housing crisis in Ireland today. These include the history of construction within the economy, growing homelessness, problems with Rent Supplement, the ongoing undermining of social housing, and specific problems faced by students. The report has also attempted to set out some of the facts in relation to accommodation for Travellers and asylum seekers.

Even at its current length, this is only a preliminary report. But it includes enough information to show that housing in Ireland is a cause for outrage.

Find Out More: • • • • • • 38

Conor McCabe, Sins of the Father (2011) Irish Council for Social Housing Housing.ie Citizens Information Threshold Simon Community

• Irish Traveller Movement • European Migration Network, The Organisation of Reception Facilities for Asylum Seekers in Ireland (February 2014)

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40

Internship Culture

Key Points • A survey of US employers found that 63.1% of students who had done paid internships got at least 1 job offer by graduation.

Only 37% of former unpaid interns could say the same – only 1.8 percentage points above those who had never done an internship.

• An EU-wide survey found that 65% of interns surveyed had relied on some form of financial help from home.

• Ireland is behind the curve on unpaid internships. In the US, a federal court judge ruled that interns on Black Swan did the work of paid employees and should have received at least the minimum wage. In the UK, HMRC has threated to publically crack down on employers organising internships that don’t adhere to the minimum wage.

• Only half of JobBridge interns finish the placement.

• Of those who choose to leave JobBridge, one-third do so because they are dissatisfied with the placement.

• 29% of Host Organisations admitted that they would have been likely to offer paid work to JobBridge interns if the scheme hadn’t existed.

Introduction Due to their vagueness, informality and undefined nature, there is a lack of coherence about what actually constitutes an internship.

The European Youth Forum considers an internship as follows: “a form of learning in a real work situation which can either be part of a formal education programme or be done voluntarily outside formal education, with the aim of acquiring competencies through 41

executing ‘real’ work tasks whilst being financially compensated and having access to according social protection”.

The lack of agreed-upon definition for internships leads to confusion about some of the characteristics of internships, such as organisation, payment, and type of work.

• Organisation: Internships can be formally organised (e.g. as part of a degree or a dedicated internship programme at a company) or be an informal arrangement (e.g. a young person taken on at a company through family connections, etc.)

• Payment: depending on the situation, interns can be fully paid, have expenses covered, or be completely unpaid • Type of work: while internships should have an aspect of training (preferably with a designated mentor, goals and contract) in practice interns generally complete work as normal employees As there is little or no data on internships in general in Ireland, the first three sections of this document (growth, inequality and undermining work) look at the international examples as a way of understanding “internship culture”. The final section investigates one particular type of internship in Ireland, JobBridge, for which we do have statistics.

Internships have grown as work has become more precarious There is currently very little information available about internships in general in Ireland (whether formal or informal). However, as the phenomenon was developed in the United States and is very much influenced by debates from that country it is appropriate to look at how internships developed there.

The very first interns in the US were medical students at the turn of the twentieth century. Then, an internship was a transitional period between medical school and work. By the 1930s internships were cropping up in politics and after the Second World War they appeared in “Corporate America”. The idea at this time was that the worker would get a job at the end of the internship. This feature has changed in the last 20 – 30 years.

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Today, an internship is no longer about training a worker for a job.

A 2012 study by Millennium Branding found that 91% of the 225 (US) employers it surveyed said that students “should have one or two” internships before they graduate. However, half of surveyed employers hadn’t hired any interns in the previous six months. “In other words, internships don’t always lead to a job offer”.

In the US, it is estimated that 25-50% of internships are completely unpaid yet unpaid internships are not beneficial to young workers: the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) 2013 survey “found that 63.1 percent of students with a paid internship under their belt had received at least one job offer. But only 37 percent of former unpaid interns could say the same – a negligible 1.8 percentage points more than students who had never interned.”

In a comparison of salaries, the NACE discovered that not only were former unpaid interns offered less money than former paid interns, but they were actually offered less money than those who had never done an internship at all.

Internships entrench inequality Although significant work has been done in the US in relation to the pervasive nature of internships in modern economies, in the United Kingdom the debate has focused on how internships entrench inequality. They are “essential, expensive and exclusive” according to Intern Aware.

The main factor raised about internships in the UK is how an intern must have considerable resources e.g. connections in a particular industry, available accommodation in London, and access to enough money that they can survive without being paid for several months.

For those who do not have these resources internships are out of the questions: “in a poll conducted by Survation for Unions 21, 84% of people over 35 said that a young person in their family could not afford to do an unpaid internship in London”.

A 2011 report by the European Youth Forum shows that the need for family support (and the resulting inequality) is not specific to the US or UK. The report found that only 75% of interns had a 43

written contract and 51% were paid. “Of those who received some form of remuneration, 49% had their living costs covered and 6% had some living costs covered. However, the remaining 45% of those who were compensated found the remuneration insufficient to cover day to day expenses.” Overall, it was found that 65% of interns had received financial support from home.

The way in which internships are procured in the UK has also caused controversy; there have been reports of internship auctions by wealthy individuals.

Internships undermine work It is in this section that the international framework for Ireland’s internship culture becomes most noticeable. Although they are engaged in work for a company or institution, interns are unpaid (or poorly paid) because the internship is supposedly educational.

This means that the intern’s work is devalued because they are working for experience (or a reference) instead of money. However, the concept of a decent wage for work done is also being devalued.

The experience of unpaid interns doing the work or paid employees without any of the benefits has been well-documented in the US, UK and other countries. It is now becoming more clearly understood that interns participate in work and so must be paid the minimum wage. In June 2013 a New York federal judge ruled that two unpaid interns on the movie Black Swan should have received at least the minimum wage: “unless it’s a bona fide training or volunteer position, an internship should be paid, open to all and transparently advertised – and should never result in the displacement of other employees”. There are currently over 20 lawsuits in progress in the US by former unpaid interns claiming they performed the work of paid employees and should have been paid.

In the US, interns are workers and must be paid the minimum wage. The Dept. of Labor lists six criteria that must be met for an intern to not be paid: the internship is similar to training in an educational environment; the experience is for the benefit of the intern; doesn’t displace regular employees but works under close 44

supervision of existing staff; the employer derives no immediate advantage from the internship; the intern isn’t entitled to a job; the intern and employer understand the intern isn’t entitled to a wage.

In the United Kingdom, there has also been recognition that interns should be classed as workers: “Internships must comply with all current employment legislation provisions. National Minimum Wage (NMW) legislation ensures that all workers in the UK who are over compulsory school leaving age are entitled to be paid at least the NMW, unless they are covered by an exemption in the NMW legislation. ‘Worker’ has a legal definition and depends upon the existence of a contract of employment or any other contract to personally perform work or services.”

HMRC (UK Revenue) has threatened a public crackdown on employers not paying interns the minimum wage.

JobBridge As internships (paid or otherwise) are relatively new to Ireland, there has been very little discussion about internship in general.

Instead, the debate has been focused on one particular type of internship: JobBridge, the national internship scheme started in 2011.

The Government, and especially the Department of Social Protection, like to point out how well the JobBridge programme is doing despite its obvious failure. Their statistics are generally based on an independent report carried out by Indecon, which investigated the programme from its inception to the end of November 2012. However, the Government reading of the report has been selective at best.

The Interns The report found that the majority of interns (72%) are aged between 20 and 34 years old. 40.5% have a primary degree and 19.3% a Masters. 72.3% had previously been employed on a fulltime basis, of which 74.6% had over 2 years of work experience.

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This shows that JobBridge internships not only do not represent the overall age profile of the unemployed but that interns clearly do not lack “experience�.

The Internship There is a notable difference in the experience of interns and host organisations of JobBridge, most strikingly in their levels of satisfaction and views on the nature of work experience. While over 90% of host organisations were satisfied or very satisfied with the scheme, only 65% of interns were correspondingly positive about the experience. As shown in the table below, host organisations also 46

had a much more positive view of the experience and opportunities that the scheme offered interns than the interns themselves did.

Similarly, while 96.1% of host organisations indicated that they would recommend JobBridge to other employers, 66.2% of interns said they would recommend it to other people.

The report notes that 72.5% of interns who completed their internship earlier than scheduled indicated they this resulted from decisions which they, rather than their Host Organisation, made.

Just under one-third indicated that they ended the internship early because of dissatisfaction with the placement.

It is unsurprising then, that only half of interns complete their placement.

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After the Internship Despite the positive tone of the Indecon report on the benefits JobBridge gives to interns, the facts presented in the report itself give a very different picture. The rates of employment post JobBridge (for those who completed their internship) are impacted on hugely by the educational level of the intern, their level of work experience prior to the scheme, and how long they had been unemployed.

Indecon admits that “Unsurprisingly, the evidence suggests that employment progression outcomes deteriorate the longer 48

individuals have been unemployed prior to their internships, with 38% of scheme participants who were previously out of work for over two years being in employment post-internship completion, falling further to only 28.2% among those previously unemployed for three years of more.�

The report also shows that of those interns who completed their internships and found a job afterwards, less than half found fulltime, permanent work and their average hourly earnings were â‚Ź12, or 56% of average economy-wide earnings.

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Without JobBridge The information presented in the independent report demonstrates that JobBridge is a source of unpaid labour to employers, rather than a kindly service to the unemployed.

For example, 60% of surveyed employers said that JobBridge providing a “low-cost temporary addition� to their workforce was important or very important to them. 71% said that it was important or very important that JobBridge secured access to additional skills. 29% of Host Organisations would have been likely to offer paid employment to the JobBridge interns in the absence of the scheme.

The Problem with JobBridge The information mentioned so far indicates that JobBridge is a negative experience for interns and does not aid them in their search for work? Why is the Department for Social Protection continuing with a scheme which has so obviously failed?

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The answer is that just because JobBridge fails interns does not mean it is failing at its purpose. Firstly, JobBridge is a major means of masking unemployment figures. In March 2014 Minister of State, Paul Kehoe TD, explained in a parliamentary question that JobBridge (as well as other activation schemes like TUS) are classified as employed in the Quarterly National Household Survey.

The second purpose of JobBridge is to provide unpaid labour to companies. The data reproduced above shows that companies admitted to using the scheme to cut costs. 133 companies even admitted to using JobBridge to displace paid workers. It is a matter of concern that this is also occurring in the public sector: 4,944 interns had completed their JobBridge in the public sector as of November 2013. JobBridge is clearly being used to mask job cuts 51

in the public sector.

Another cause for concern is that JobBridge is the compulsory nature of JobBridge. When the scheme was started, the Department for Social Protection focused on the voluntary nature of JobBridge.

However, in January 2014 Minister Burton announced that young unemployed people who “fail to apply or accept some additional opportunities on the JobBridge national internship scheme” could face dole cuts. Sanctions for those currently on €144 having their weekly payment cut to €144 and those on €100 being cut to €75.

In the Indecon survey 133 companies admitted to using JobBridge to replace paid workers. Yet, as of January 2014, less than 40 participating companies had been disqualified for abuses of JobBridge. Taken together with the figures and statements mentioned above, it is clear that the problem is not that a few unscrupulous employers are abusing the system; JobBridge is the abuse.

Conclusions This has been a fairly lengthy document because it is dealing with both the concept of internship culture and with specific information about the JobBridge programme. Although the data on internships is scarce, the information which is currently available shows that internships are not just a “phase” that young people have to go through before getting to paid work. Internships are bad for interns, bad for workers, and very good for employers.

While reading this document it is important to bear in mind that although they have existed in one shape or another for over a century, in their contemporary form internships cannot be separated from precarious work or the undermining of pay, conditions and the very meaning of work More Information • Indecon, Evaluation of JobBridge: Final Evaluation Report (2013).

• Pathways to Work 2013: 50 Point Plan to Tackle Long-Term 52

• • • • • • • •

Unemployment Gateways to the Professions Collaborative Forum, Common Best Practice for High-Quality Internships European Youth Forum, Interns Revealed: A Survey on Internships Quality in Europe European Youth Forum, Opinion Paper on Internships Intern Aware Intern Labour Rights International Coalition for Fair Internships Unpaid is Unfair ScamBridge

53

Mental Health

Key Points • Despite having the 6th lowest suicide rate in the EU, the suicide rate among young people in Ireland is the 4th highest in the EU. • In the EU, every 1% increase in national unemployment is paralleled by a 0.8% rise in suicide.

• A 2013 report by the RCSI found that 19% of Irish young people had thought about suicide.

Introduction The following traces some useful resources relevant to youth mental health in Ireland, with a particular regional bias towards Galway.

Suicide rates in Ireland There were 475 suicides in Ireland in 2013, a 6.3% decrease on the previous year. According to figures from the CSO there has been a decrease in suicides amongst people aged 15-24: there were 95 deaths in 2011, 74 in 2012 and 57 in 2013 The suicide rate amongst young people in Ireland was found to be the fourth highest in the EU in 2010, with young people aged between 20 and 24 most at risk (31.9 per 100,000 deaths). This is despite the fact that Ireland has the sixth lowest rate of death by suicide in the EU when the population as a whole is considered.

A report by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland found in 2013 that almost 1 in 5 (19%) of Irish youths had thought about suicide.

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The suicide rate, which calculates the numbers of deaths by suicide per 100,000 of population stood at 11.1 in Ireland in 2012. At 12.6, the average in county Galway was higher than the national average. The suicide rate in Galway City was identical to the national average, with 30 people committing suicide in Galway City and County, according to official figures. This compares to 21 in both Galway City and County in 2003. In both time periods, suicide occurred disproportionately in rural areas.

Paul Kelly of awareness group Concern said in April 2011 that in recent months calls to their helpline had increased by 13%; many of the callers were people affected by the recession. He criticised suicide statistics from 2007 as being out of date, stating that there had been a “huge surge” in suicide since previous years.

Galway East Life Support (GELS) founder, Arthur Carr, said there were 26 suicides in the east of the county in the first six months of 2013, arguing that there is under-reporting in official figures: “I counted 26 cases myself between January 1 and June 13 of last year. The official figure is somewhere between 30 and 37 for all of last year, but realistically the figure for 2013 is between 45 and 49.”

Self–harm Dr Eve Griffin, Research Psychologist/ Registry Co-ordinator, said that she had seen a 14% increase in all HSE regions between 2007 and 2011, though in one of those years there had been a 4% reduction. “There’s probably a link to the current recession. Though we are primarily focussed on younger people, we are seeing an increase in the rate of self-harming for women in their forties.”

The Western region of the HSEs had the highest number of teenagers showing suicidal tendencies, self-harming and ADHD and other attentional disorders in 2010.

During the first half of 2012, the incidence rates for deliberate selfharming in Galway City was 166 per 100,000 population, down almost 21% on the previous year’s equivalent figure of 210 per 100,000.

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Mental health and the economic crisis Internationally, there is a close correlation between national unemployment and suicide rates; in the European Union, every 1% increase in national unemployment is paralleled by a 0.8% rise in suicide in people under 65 years of age. Lack of social support is a key cause of this. Research in the former-USSR found that suicide, alongside issues like anxiety and depression, was substantially reduced where trade union membership was high.

During times of economic crisis, increased demand for mental health services coincide with an increased inability for those with mental health problems to access the necessary services, due to an inability to afford private health care and cutbacks to public healthcare.

A 2013 report explains that “unemployment has a causal influence on depression. Common sense dictates that depression will reduce the chance of re-employment and reintegration into an already strained economy and eventually the chronically unemployed suffer increased debts. Longitudinal data show that financial difficulties lead to increased major depression, with housing payment problems and consumer debt leading to poorer mental health. In short, the quintessential ‘vicious cycle’.”

The same report highlighted that anxiety about job insecurity complicates existing depression and acts as a chronic stressor, with cumulative effects over time.

Cuts and Spin The media reportage of the death of Donal Walsh exemplified the victim-blaming of those suffering from mental health problems. It has been summed up in one blog post as follows: “For there to be ‘strong’ and worthy or ‘inspirational’ individuals with (or without) mental illness begs their shadow; unworthy wretches who are ‘weak’, ‘uninspiring’, or who ‘don’t bother to help themselves’. A discussion of the structural causes of mental illness (e.g. personal debt, workplace stress, unemployment, racial discrimination, 56

misogyny, homophobia, bullying, learning difficulties, sexual violence, domestic violence, etc.) is noticeably absent – we don’t want to embarrass anyone or any particular institution.”

There is also a need to debunk Government spin justifying cuts in the mental health sector. Moving mental health care away from institutions and towards community care may be laudable in theory.

However, the reality is that this government is removing mental health services without putting adequate community frameworks in place.

One example of this has happened in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, where the closure of mental health beds is being replaced not by an adequate mental health emergency team but by a solitary nurse. The Health and Safety Authority (HAS) has been called in to examine the acute mental health services unit at University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) following a number of tragic incidents and persistent overcrowding.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) has claimed that the government’s ‘Vision for Change’ plan is failing to deliver for the people of South Tipperary as a result of a shortage of consultant psychiatric and junior doctors in mental health services. In an email in Mmay 2014, the PNA stated that “routine clinics and assessments would be cancelled and emergencies covered by a consultant on call in the absence of consultant psychiatrist cover”.

People in rural regions have higher completed suicide rates than the general population. This puts a particular emphasis on the importance of mental health resources in rural areas. The cuts to hospital beds in Ballinasloe and Roscommon risk putting further strain on already overcrowded resources in Galway City.

Conclusions This report has tried to highlight some of the major issues relating to mental health in Ireland at the present time: uncertainty over figures, media portray of those with mental health, austerity and cuts. Yet there is more which can be done. It is also necessary to 57

discuss how youth mental health impacts on minorities such as the LGBTQ community, the Travelling community, those in Direct Provision, etc.

For more information: • WHO, Impact of economic crisis on mental health (2011).

• Kien Hoe Ng, Mark Agius, and Rashid Zaman, “The global economic crisis: effects on mental health and what can be done”, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (2013)

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Precarious Work

Key Points • Although there are protections against zero-hour contracts in Ireland, these do not apply to casual workers.

• Precarious workers are likely to be female, young, from outside Ireland, and to work in service or manual sectors.

• 20.7% of Irish workers can be regarded as low wage – well ahead of the Eurozone average of 14.8% and the EU’s average of 17%.

• When the government talks about job creation, how many of those jobs are part-time, temporary, and precarious?

• In a survey of Mandate members (retail and bar trade), over a quarter of workers said they would like more certainty from their employer in relation to their working schedule.

Introduction The International Metalworkers’ Federation (the other IMF) defines precarious work as “typically non-permanent, temporary, casual, insecure and contingent. Workers in these jobs are often not covered by labour law and social security protections. Precarious work is caused by employment practices designed to maximise employer profits and flexibility and to shift risks onto workers.”

Despite its prevalence in Ireland, there has been very little research done into precarious work or what it means for workers. This report aims to draw together some of the currently available resources to give some image of what precarious work looks like in this country today.

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Precarious workers: young, female, and migrants Turner and O’Sullivan conducted research into low-paid work in Ireland, using eligibility for a Joint Labour Committee (JLC) as the threshold for low-paid work. A summary of their findings is reproduced at the end of this document. The figures show that the profile of a low paid worker is skewed away from the profile of the overall labour market in this country.

Low pay is highly gendered: women make up 63% of workers in the JLC range despite making up 44% of the labour force. The Turner and O’Sullivan data also show other workers who are overrepresented in the low-paid range: employees with primary and secondary level education (30%), the under-25s (43%), service and manual workers (75%), part-time workers (43%), and nonnationals (25%).

Low Pay The current discourse on wages in Ireland portrays the country as having wages that are “too high”. This is inaccurate; Ireland is a low-pay economy.

Low-wage earners are defined as those whose hourly pay is less than two-thirds of the median national hourly wage. 20.7% of Irish workers fall into this bracket – well ahead of the Eurozone average of 14.8% and the EU’s average of 17%. In Ireland, people earning below €12.20 an hour are considered as falling below the low-wage threshold.

According to Michael Taft, labour costs in the private sector would have to rise by over 16% to reach the average of the other EU-15 countries. They would have to rise by over 26% to reach the average of the other EU-15 countries which were not in the bailout scheme.

Labour costs would have to rise by 44% to reach the average of our peer group – other small, open economies (i.e. Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden).

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Part-time underemployment Figures from the CSO’s Quarterly National Household Survey show that precarious work is a major feature of the Irish economy and is on the rise. Despite government declarations of job creation in 2013, precarious work accounted for much of the total rise in employment last year. The number of full-time jobs actually decreased by 6,000 and the CSO admitted that “part-time underemployment increased over the year, up 17,000 or +12.3% to 155,900. Part-time underemployment represents 34.3% of total part-time employment having been 28.7% two years earlier.”

A NERI report on working hours in Ireland between 1992 and 2012 found that while working hours for professionals have remained relatively stable, there was a pattern of decline in working hours for “relative low paid occupations”. The largest declines in average working hours were for service and sales workers and elementary occupations (which includes occupations such as cleaners, refuse workers, food preparation assistants and labourers in agriculture and industry), with declines of 9.6 and 8.6 hours respectively.

The report states that “declines in working hours have occurred mostly within sectors and occupations that are labour intensive and associated with low pay”.

The Turner and O’Sullivan report mentioned above found that, as well as earning less per hour, workers in the JLC range worked fewer hours per week, had fewer overtime hours and received a lower remuneration for overtime hours than those above the JLC range.

Zero-hour and short-term contracts A zero-hour contract is a type of employment contract where “the employee is available for work but does not have specified hours of work”. Employees are, however, supposed to be protected by the Organisation of Working Time Act (1997). This would entitle them to compensation for 25% of the possible available hours or for 15 hours, whichever is less.

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For example, Worker X is on a zero-hour contract and usually works 20 hours per week on the minimum wage for a gross weekly total of €173. If Worker X is rostered for 20 hours one week but ends up working none, they are entitled to only €43.25 in compensation (25% of €173).

However, the Act does not apply to casual workers. According to Citizens Information “there is no definition of ‘casual employees’ in employment law. In reality, casual workers are on standby to do work as required without fixed hours or attendance arrangements.”

Due to the lack of research into low-paid and precarious work, there is no way to tell exactly how many people are on zero-hour contracts in Ireland. However, McDonalds has confirmed that over 90% of its 4,200 non-managerial staff in Ireland are employed on zero-hour contracts and have been since 1999. Domino’s Pizza also admitted to using them for the “majority of the non-managerial or supervisory positions”. Burger King did not respond to questions

by The Irish Independent about its employment practices, though it is known that 20,000 of its UK employees are on zero-hour contracts.

Flexibility In 2012 Mandate Trade Union, which represents over 45,000 workers in the bar and retail trade, commissioned a survey of its membership from Behaviour & Attitudes. This survey is one of the few sources of information available on working hours in the retail sector or on precarious work in general.

The report notes that “on average, members work just under 26 hours a week, with men working a longer 31.4 hour week, compared to 24.1 hours for women. As would be expected, working hours are highest for full-time employees, at 36.3, while part-time workers work 22.1 hours. With an average of 17.3 hours, students work the fewest hours.

“The number of days a week worked varies considerably by the nature of the employment contract. An average full-time employee 62

works on five days a week, a part-time worker on four days a week, and the average for students is three days.�

The report then goes on to highlight the high number of days worked per week, considering the low number of hours worked by those not on full-time contracts. It points out that 40% of parttime employees work on five or more days a week. This can have a significant impact as the number of days worked per week affects eligibility for social welfare.

Overall, two-fifths of Mandate members stated that their employers changed their weekly working hours at least once a month, with part-time workers experiencing particular instability as 45% had their hours changed at least once a month by their employer and less than one-in-three had stable working arrangements. 30% of full-time workers had their hours changed at least once a month.

This lack of stability does not suit workers: over a quarter of respondents to the Mandate survey said they would like more certainty from their employer in relation to their working schedule, with part-time and student workers having the highest dissatisfaction.

Protection for precarious workers One of the major factors of precarious work mentioned in the definition given by the Industrial Metal Workers above is that precarious workers are often excluded from social benefits. This can happen due to the nature of the work. The experience of the Paris Bakery workers, who discovered their employer had not been paying PRSI when they were told they were ineligible for Jobseekers’ Benefit, demonstrates that it is also the position as precarious workers which leaves them vulnerable to employers.

The research by Turner and O’Sullivan shows that low-paid workers are less likely to be unionised: only 14% are union members, compared to 25% of the general population. Precarious workers are supposedly protected by Joint Labour Committees.

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Joint Labour Committees are “tripartite statutory bodies with employer and union representative and an independent chair. They propose minimum wage rates and conditions for workers which are made legally binding for areas where collective bargaining is poorly developed and pay relatively low such as in hotels, catering, security, contract cleaning and retail�.

As part of the 2010 IMF deal, the then-Government committed to reforming the National Minimum Wage and carrying out an independent review of the JLC system. JLCs were suspended in 2011 after a constitutional challenge by employers in the catering sector. In 2012 legislation was brought in to allow for a Labour Court ruling, which was made in October 2013. At the end of January 2014 the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, announced changes to the JLCs in line with the Labour Court recommendations. This involved the abolition of JLCs for Dublin hotels and for law clerks as well as the reform of JLCs for hotels (non-Dublin and Cork), contract cleaners, hairdressing, and security.

It remains to be seen how this judgement will play out.

Conclusion Has precarious work become the new normal for youth in Ireland?

It certainly seems so, though to what extent this is being accepted can be seen in the numbers emigrating from the country because of pay and conditions (as discussed in the report on emigration).

Both government and employers try to paint precarious work as a return to recovery and efforts are made to present precarious work as a positive for workers. But the responses reported in the Mandate survey of members demonstrates that workers do not support temporary and uncertain working conditions. And the increasing prevalence of in-work poverty demonstrates the impact that low paid, precarious work has on families.

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For More Information: • Michael Taft, “Can it really be this good?”, Unite’s Notes on the Front, 30 May 2013.

• CSO Quarterly National Household Survey • Thomas Turner and Michelle O’Sullivan, “Economic crisis and the restructuring of wage setting mechanisms for vulnerable workers in Ireland”, The Economic and Social Review (Summer 2013), pp.197-219.

• Camille Loftus, Decent work? The impact of the recession on low paid work: a report for Mandate Trade Union (2012).

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Unemployment

Key Points • Youth unemployment hovered around 9% throughout the 2000s and leaped to just under 30% in 2009.

• Youth unemployment has been about twice the general rate of unemployment for over a decade.

• There are 28.5 applicants for each available post.

• 85% of 18-24 years olds on the Live Register have previously worked.

• The youth poverty rate in 2013 was 41.6% • Unemployment figures are being massaged through the use of the Live Register rather than the QNHS and the exclusion of education- and labour activation- schemes from unemployment figures.

Introduction Unemployment has long been recognised as an economic, social and political malice. Alongside wider economic effects such as reduced government revenue, economic activity, declining income and consumer demand, unemployment is strongly associated with increased poverty and social deprivation. Linked to this is the damage to communities done by reduced resources and support systems and the damage done to individuals and families in terms of mental health and physical well-being.

Unemployment is not a lifestyle choice; it is a failure of government policy and, most importantly, a failure of an economic and social system. This document looks at figures, impact and policies around 67

unemployment in the Republic of Ireland, with a particular focus on young people and youth unemployment.

Unemployment figures Irish unemployment figures are extremely high, especially considering that emigration, education and labour activation schemes artistically deflate the figures. Even the most cursory comparison with the unemployment figures throughout the years of economic boom (and bubble) show that people have not chosen to become unemployed. The current unemployment figures are the product of near-economic collapse, austerity and a downward economic cycle.

As of Quarter 1 2014, overall unemployment stands at 12.03%.

In January 2001 unemployment was 3.7%. Significantly, only 32.6% of the unemployed were categorised as long-term unemployed (longer than 12 months). This means that long-term unemployment at the height of the boom was close to 1.2% of the labour force.

The data reproduced from TradingEconomics.com show that throughout the 2000s, unemployment did not reach above 5%. In the period 2009-2014, unemployment has stayed above 10% and hit a high of 15.1% in February 2012.

A recent Oireachtas report on youth unemployment has stated that “the youth unemployment rate in Ireland began to rise sharply in 2007, from 9.1% to 24% in 2009. It continued to increase steadily to 30.4% in 2012. The youth unemployment rate in the EU 28 also 68

rose during this period, but at a far slower rate and from a higher base, from 15.8% in 2008, to 20.2% in 2009, to 23% in 2012.”

In this context, the unemployed – and particularly the young unemployed – have very few options. In 2013 - 2014 there are still 28.5 applicants for each job available.

Social supports and attacks on the young At the beginning of the crisis, different rates of Jobseeker’s Allowance based on age were brought in for the first time. Those aged 18-24 received €100 a week, those aged 22-24 received €144 a week, and at 25 years of age jobseekers received the full entitlement of €188 a week.

In budget 2014, Jobseeker’s Allowance was cut for new entrants after January 2014. All new entrants aged 18-24 now receive €100 per week and individuals who are 25 receive €144 per week. At 26 years of age, claimants receive the full entitlement.

According to NERI, “the stated aim [of the cuts] was to ‘ensure that young people are better off in education, employment or training than claiming’, and the Government hopes to save €32 million”.

This statement is a direct indication that unemployment claims are 69

perceived by the Government to be a choice by young people. This belief is contradicted by the facts: the high number of applicants per available job (mentioned above); that 82% of individuals in the State aged 18-24 are not claiming social welfare; and 85% of 18-24 years olds on the Live Register have previously worked.

Social welfare cuts, especially in a time of high unemployment and economic recession, are devastating. The poverty figure in the general population currently stands at 29.4%. Between 2006 and 2013, youth poverty doubled to 41.8%. Jobseekers payments of €100/week are in no way adequate to cover costs, such as transport, rent, and sustenance. It is therefore entirely possible that cuts to Jobseeker’s Allowance are reducing the ability to find work.

There is class and regional discrimination to the cuts. Such low levels of state assistance indicate the assumption that young people can be supported by family. However, this is clearly not possible in cases of low family income or high debt. Again, social welfare cuts simply compound poverty and limit opportunity.

Fudging the numbers Major attempts are being made to deflate the unemployment figures. This happens through the use of emigration, but more importantly through the exclusion of education- and labour activation- schemes from the unemployment figures.

One major problem is the use of the Live Register despite the clear statement from the CSO that “the Live Register is not designed to measure unemployment”. For example, the Live Register recorded 413,600 people as signing on in September 2013 (13.3%). But this number is inaccurate as it includes casual and part-time workers while excluding those on activation programmes like JobBridge or CE schemes.

Compounding this issue is the fact that the reasons why a claimant left the Live Register is not represented. It was announced that between October 2012 and September 2013 407,000 had left the Live Register. However, when a breakdown of the numbers was 70

released by Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton TD, it was shown that almost 36% of those who left the live register had been forced to stop claiming because they were no longer entitled to unemployed benefit (which can only be claimed for a maximum of 12 months based on the duration of previous work). 30,000 stated they had joined labour activation and education schemes and only one-third said they had actually found work.

Instead of using the Live Register, analysis of unemployment in Ireland should instead use the Quarterly National Household Survey. However, even this measure is not without fault: In March 2014 Minister of State, Paul Kehoe TD, explained in a parliamentary question that JobBridge (as well as other activation schemes like TUS) are classified as employed in the Quarterly National Household Survey.

In this manner, unemployment figures are artificially reduced without the creation of effective and sustainable employment.

Conclusions This document has shown that unemployment is due to a jobs crisis, not a lifestyle crisis. The jobs crisis has far-reaching and devastating effects, and it is young people who are on the frontline.

Efforts to confront the jobs crisis, such as dole cuts and claims of improvement and progress, have been disingenuous at best and malicious at worst. They have instead heightened poverty and insecurity, laid an attack on working conditions, massaged the figures, and compounded rather than tackled the worst effects of unemployment.

For More Information: • NERI Research in Brief, Do the young unemployed need the incentive of reduced social welfare? (November 2013).

• CSO • EuroStat

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