Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to labour the point on employment services. It has been well made by Deputies Carey and Kerrane and I broadly agree with them. I have the same concern that we are marketising social services. I fully accept and take the Minister at her word on the legal advice she received but this is a concern for the future. It is welcome that this committee has taken an ongoing watching brief in that regard.

Deputy Kerrane beat me to the RSS issue as well. One thing that jumped out at me, which the Minister of State mentioned, is the ecological services the scheme can provide. One of the other measures listed is energy conservation work for older people and those at risk of poverty. That especially jumped out at me given the retrofitting announcement made during the week, in particular, with regard to smaller interventions that are now 80% grant-aided. These include measures such as attic insulation, which might not require the same level of qualification as is required to do a full deep retrofit. I know that sourcing contractors for that kind of small-scale work will be one of the challenges facing the retrofitting scheme. It jumped out at me, therefore, that this is an opportunity. Perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy O’Brien, will comment.

On the back to education allowance, it is very welcome that funding is close to doubling. Will the Minister provide more detail on where the people availing of the allowance are going? What courses are they attending and what is the planned outcome from those courses? Are we taking an active role in directing people towards specific courses or are we taking the view that all back to education is good? There is probably a middle ground to be found in that respect. We know there are skills shortages in particular areas. It would be interesting to see the Department directing people towards courses where we know those skills shortages are.

I ask the Minister to comment briefly on the work placement experience programme, which was announced as part of the July jobs stimulus package. It is a very welcome move. Is it receiving the level of employer interest we need to ensure take-up of the programme? Have safeguards been put in place to ensure we do not undercut the pay and conditions of other staff through the workplace experience programme? Do we have the necessary safeguarding in place? I will leave it at that for the moment.