Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I share the sentiments expressed by Deputy O'Dea. There is an issue there. I also believe there is an issue in this regard for people who are over 55. Birdhill won the national Tidy Towns award, and congratulations to them. They attributed a lot of their success to CE schemes. Unfortunately, we seem to be losing people who are over 55. Their time runs up, they just get one crack at the scheme now and schemes are falling apart. This issue should be looked at. Equally, if a person is on JobPath, he or she cannot transfer over to a CE scheme, even if the scheme is in jeopardy of falling apart. This should be examined.

Turning to the processing times for payments, such as those for illness, disability and carers, there have been delays in such payments in the past. Does the Department have any targets to reduce the processing times for those payments?