James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation and acknowledge the important role community employment has played in enhancing the environment. I come from a county which has won three national awards in the Tidy Towns competition, none of which would have been achieved without the input of community employment schemes. This year, Abbeyshrule won a national and European award. We will have a civic reception for participants in the local community employment scheme, many of them volunteers, who helped bring the village to where it is today. The reduction last year in the value of the materials grant for community employment caused a major outcry. Any further cuts would have a devastating effect on community employment schemes. I plead with the officials to ensure no further cuts are included in the upcoming budget.

We must not lose sight of the fact that the sponsors of community employment schemes are volunteers who do not receive any rewards, financial or otherwise, except the support of their respective communities. They give their time to establish and manage community employment schemes that provide major benefits to local communities. For example, community employment has helped rejuvenate the tourism industry through improvements to heritage sites and so forth. The rural social scheme also delivers major social benefits. Small farmers, in particular, many of whom are isolated in their communities, are brought together and linked in to their local community.

Community employment schemes and State and semi-State bodies, such as Waterways Ireland and the Office of Public Works, should link up and co-operate more. Waterways Ireland has done extensive work on re-opening the Royal Canal from Dublin to the River Shannon. I am fond of walking different stretches of the canal from time to time and I have noted significant deficits along the route, for example, areas where walkers must traverse soft bogland. Under an arterial drainage scheme carried out in the mid-1960s, a large amount of spoil was taken from the River Inney and left on the river bank. This continues to damage farmland and farmers have indicated to me that they would welcome its removal to be placed along soft areas of the canal towpaths. Such an initiative should be considered under the rural social scheme. It is only one of many examples of work that could be done under the scheme.

Community employment schemes did not play a role in the re-opening of the canal which proved to be a major community asset. Much more needs to be done to conserve heritage sites along the banks of the Royal Canal. This issue should be examined to ensure heritage is placed on the map. Local knowledge about townlands and folklore has been passed down through the generations and should be utilised. The folklore of local areas could be collected as part of a tourism project. I refer not only to the canals but several other areas where work of this nature could be done.

As I noted, any further cuts in the value of material grants would have a devastating effect. We must remember that the sponsors are volunteers who work full-time elsewhere. They have come together to establish a scheme and the only benefit they receive is a sense of pride in their community.