Mr. Joe Saunders:

To address the LES contracts issue, members of the committee may be aware that LES contracts have been offered on a yearly basis for the past two and a half decades. The current contract, which existing LES providers are working under, is a contract presented to them last November. It came into operation at the beginning of January and is for one year, until the end of 2021.

Would we be willing to take on the work that other contract providers are doing? Our submission and opening statement allude to the fact that we are willing to provide a comprehensive employment service for all citizens, regardless of means or need, but the financial and delivery models for how that is done are extremely important. Our voluntary boards do not wish to make profit out of any jobseeker or to engage in per-unit costings where upfront funding is needed.

We want a model run on a community not-for-profit basis which is available to all citizens. We would provide that while operating the entirety of activation services if asked to do so. We propose to extend our current operations rapidly and radically.

With regard to the RSS, I agree with the Deputy's two criticisms of the rule changes. This scheme does vital work. To give a good concrete example of how it contributes to the mission of Ireland Inc., the Wild Atlantic Way benefits from thousands of RSS and Tús scheme workers providing environmental management, beach clean-ups, litter clean-ups and interaction with visitors along the route. This work is quiet and unseen but is vital in many areas. The Deputy is right about the cohort involved. There are challenges in filling vacancies on these schemes. Any obstacles like the six-year rule are to the detriment of both the individuals who would be on the scheme and the wider communities they would serve through their work.

As to the LEADER programme, the pressure to spend is always there. As the Deputy knows well, this is a developmental programme and there is an arc to the funding pattern over the seven years. Our members are working extremely hard to get this money out into communities. They have animated and are fielding a great range of expressions of interest and are turning them into applications. The Deputy will be very aware of some of the gold-plating of the European rules which has stood in the way of that over the past while. We will be looking to return to more simplified, less bureaucratic mechanisms for the expenditure of moneys that are closer to the point of delivery in the design of the next programme.