Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Mar fhocal scoir, I have to admit that in my working background, I went to Connemara many years ago to work for a co-op. Very wisely at the time, the Department of the Gaeltacht was giving management grants, as they called it, to these start-up co-ops. They still exist and are still getting this core funding that the witnesses are talking about. It certainly had a massive effect in the Gaeltacht areas. Let us limit today's agenda to two issues and focus on them. One issue is the need for core funding for the development of local services. Rather than bringing all of the services in from the local big town, they could be provided from within the communities on a comprehensive basis. They need core funding to sustain and build those services and a scheme of core funding to be provided that is not scheme specific but is for that type of general service in rural areas. Would that be a major plus?

Mention was made of the community services programme. I do not know if the witnesses' organisations have a community services programme. I cannot remember if they have one or not. It is the only programme, apart from the rural social scheme, that allows the people to stay with the organisation. With community employment schemes, Tús schemes and so on, no sooner has an organisation got the employees than they are told they have to keep moving on, even though they are dying to stay with the organisation. In other places in the country, people who do the kind of work that schemes do out in the countryside are actually paid. They are paid full wages and given permanent jobs. Therefore, these are necessary services and are not ancillary. How important would it be for scheme jobs, Tús jobs and so on that the person would be allowed to stay on the scheme as long as they did not get full-time employment elsewhere? Therefore, the organisation would get to hold on to the staff it has trained and built up a rapport with rather than have a constant churn of the short-term schemes. If those two issues came out of today's meeting, would the witnesses feel it was worthwhile coming all the way up to Dublin?