Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Pobal oversees the spending of a lot of money. When we undertake a project, we are asked if we delivered value for money. If, for example, an engineer was to write a letter to say value for money had been achieved, is it the kind of thing Pobal would accept? I know that the schemes do achieve value for money. Any money spent on them, including the social inclusion and activation programme, SICAP, the rural social scheme or the community employment scheme, probably represents the best value for money achieved for any public money spent. I would like to see it being proved, rather than making a bald statement they did achieve value for money. From a political point of view, we need to see the value that can be achieved with a small amount of money. With a little more money the schemes could achieve so much more for communities. For the participants it is very important that this kind of stuff is being spoken about.

I find that when participants aged 55 plus are told that they have to go off a scheme, they do not find other gainful employment . Someone who is 30 years old may be brought onto the scheme who might be in a better position to find employment. I ask Pobal to take on board the issues people who are part-time farmers face on rural social schemes. When they reach the age of 55 years, they should be allowed to remain on the scheme until they reach pension age. That would provide stability in the numbers of participants involved.

We are to increase numbers on the rural social scheme. We are meant to double them over the next two years. We also need to ensure we bring the threshold down to 55 or 56. If an individual at that age does not have employment then he or she can remain on the scheme until he or she gets the pension. They are small things that mean an awful lot to people. I commend the witnesses on the work they do and on the profile of the work they do. What we do not do is put it out there as good as we should. It is good money being spent in a positive way.