Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Like everybody else, I congratulate the Minister. She should set aside some time to bring herself up to speed on "Thomas the Tank Engine", "Paw Patrol" and various other things like that. There is a lot of learning there because the language has changed. The fat controller is no longer working for Thomas the tank engine's company. It is very serious stuff.

The other thing about having a grandchild is that it is so easy to love them because when they become a little bit stroppy, one can hand them back. That is one of the great things. I dropped something up to the house of my three-year-old granddaughter recently. She came to the window, put up her hand and said, "Go away, granddad, we don't want the virus". Kids are very much on top of it.

Senator Buttimer made a plea for the airline pilots. There is going to be a serious situation in aviation once the economy opens up again. The number of pilots that are now in dire circumstances is something at which we have to look. They are not just in dire circumstances because of income but also because of flying hours. To keep these guys in the air, they must have up-to-date flying hours. I ask the Minister to bring that point back to the Cabinet because perhaps it is not 100% her issue.

The Minister mentioned higher and further education. I had a call yesterday telling me that the vocational training opportunity scheme, VTOS, is now missing from the website. Can the Minister give some clarity on that matter? Is VTOS about to be suspended or ended?

Senator Mullen mentioned gambling. I brought amendments to the Betting (Amendment) Bill 2015 in the hope that we might change the way gambling is run in this country. A considerable amount of money goes through gambling organisations from prostitution and various other illegal activities and we have to get on top of that.

I particularly want to talk to the Minister today about community employment, CE, supervisors. Many people have mentioned CE schemes and their benefits to the community. The Labour Court recommended that CE supervisors were to be looked after with respect to pensions. There are two tiers in that regard because CE supervisors who were working for local authorities have pension schemes whereas those who were not working do not. Quite a number of the CE supervisors are now in their 60s and coming towards retirement. They have been told that €30 million has been set aside by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to look after their pension schemes. As I say, there are Labour Court and Workplace Relations Commission judgments which state that the Department of Social Protection is the employer. I know that the Minister has not been in the Department for long but we really have to sort this out for these people. It is unfair. Some of them have 30 years' service, have been employed on a year-by-year basis and are now coming to the end of their working lives and they have nothing to look forward to. That is unfair. I am not asking the Minister to make a statement on that matter today but she might come back to me when she has had time to look into it herself. It is not fair to bounce something like that at her as soon as she comes in the door. In this Covid era, these community employment supervisors have suddenly found themselves being landed with a phenomenal amount of work which I would have some difficulty thinking they would be qualified to do. For example, I would cite the drafting of individual learning plans. It is something I would have been involved in as a teacher and it is not something that is undertaking willy-nilly. Why has this suddenly happened to them and why are they being expected to do it? The chief development officers have sent each employee or member of the scheme a ten-page form to be completed. It is unfair to ask these people to do this work as many of them have no qualifications in the area of deciding what an individual learning plan should contain or what academic or training qualifications an individual would need. These are specialist areas for career advice people.

I am not bouncing this issue on the Minister today, as that would be unfair, but I ask her to go back to the Department to get a handle on what is going on with respect to chief development officers moving individual learning plans onto the backs of the local community employment supervisors. She might email me in a few days and let me know the position. I will finish on that note.