Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the officials. I am sorry for being late. I am rushing to the Seanad. I would like to endorse much of what Deputy Conaghan has just said. I am hugely impressed with the very broad range of work that is being carried out under community employment schemes throughout the country. I am from Galway. A recent event in the Shantalla area of the city brought all of the community employment schemes in the locality together. I thought that was very wise on their part. One would be hugely embarrassed if one could not give them all time. The work they are doing is incredible. Everything is community-based, which needs to be a cornerstone of our efforts to keep our communities and our society together. Work is taking place in areas like mental health, child care and social work. There is a huge range of heritage work going on. I was impressed by the commitment of the group. Some of those who would never have bought into learning if it had not been a requirement of the scheme are now doing so. I was also impressed by the professionalism of the co-ordinator of the scheme, who is inculcating planning and teamwork among those involved.

There should be no cutbacks in community employment schemes. I will make that point to the Minister when the Seanad debates social welfare on Thursday. Any cuts in this area would represent a very poor economy. It would represent a huge level of stupidity at this time, when we want people to engage with their communities. Not only are those involved doing good work in the mental health area, but they are also improving their own mental health, which can be at risk at times of unemployment. I agree with Deputy Conaghan that the ESRI would do well to do qualitative work-----