Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The CE scheme has a fairly straightforward eligibility criteria. Being stuck at home does not rule anyone out from accessing a CE scheme. Perhaps the rural social scheme might be relevant to the people mentioned. Possibly of more relevance is the fact that there will be 3,000 additional places, which were announced as part of the July stimulus package last year. We have put initial feelers out to see how many people are interested in taking up the new places. There is interest so that could and I hope should allow schemes to be developed in new areas like those mentioned by the Senator. There is scope for doing new things under the CE scheme and we want people do to new things so there is a place for the Senator's ideas.