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

On dormant accounts, how much of the money is going to State agencies and so on to spend and how much is going to community groups? The funding was intended originally to go to community groups in the main. I refer to the community services programme. I understand each company must now top up the wage by €2,000. Up to 2012, there was a euro-for-euro refund of all wage costs, including the PRSI. Has the requirement to come up with the income to pay that part of the wage put pressure on the more vulnerable groups? The Minister said he would like to get the rural social scheme back in his Department. I might give him a bit of a thought process on that. He is probably finding it difficult to get an increase in the money for the community services project.

It has not increased this year. In fact, it has been squeezed in recent years. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform looks on that as 100% spending. If the Minister got a further €5 million, the Department would not give him credit for taking people off the dole. The project was put under the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection because, if that Department's Minister was of a mind, she could prove within her budget that taking someone off of farm assist and putting him or her on the RSI had a minimal net cost. On the other hand, if the Minister before us had the RSI without the farm assist, he would have to look for the full money, and he knows how willing and welcome the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection would be to hand over that. If the Minister is trying for the RSI, I suggest that he take the farm assist scheme with it at a minimum. As he created jobs through the RSI, he could prove that he was making a saving. All he would need to show would be the difference between someone being on the RSI compared with farm assist. I can see the argument from two points of view, but it is complex.

I am worried, as I can see from this document that this year's budget for the community services programme, CSP, is the same as last year. I am not saying it would be easy, but the Minister is not managing to leverage extra money out of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Many fantastic community facilities have been built over the years. Community groups are building new heritage facilities and so on around the country through the rural development fund. The Minister will need many more community services to run these places, which are semi-viable. The Crossroads community centre in Cong was in my constituency and is now in the Minister's constituency. If that was run under the CSP, one could not keep the doors open. That is true of all of these large centres. Why would we not keep them open from 9 a.m. until 11 p.m.? Some staff resources would be needed.