Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Mahon for his very detailed submission, covering a broad range of areas. I wish to raise a couple of brief questions with him. At the outset, he mentioned that people who are long-term unemployed and had left education early, have become isolated and insecure, as well as withdrawn from society as a result. Has Mr. Mahon seen a difference with people prior to the Covid-19 pandemic compared with new clients entering the CE scheme? What impact has the past two years have had on them?

It is important to note, as highlighted in Mr. Mahon's evidence today, that no two individuals who come into a CE programme are the same. Their background, education, and life experience are different. We need to engage with them if we are to bring them back into the workforce, which is ultimately the objective of these schemes. Following the engagement with the Department, does Mr. Mahon believe that supervisors have been given the level of scope and flexibility to be able to cater for the individual needs of participants to ensure they are actively participating in the workforce?

Related to that, how big an issue is literacy and numeracy? We know, from survey after survey, that one fifth of our adult population cannot read and comprehend the instructions on the back of a paracetamol box. That is a failing of our education system. There are many opportunities for people to re-engage with the education system. When they do not do that, they end up being long-term unemployed. CE is probably the last safety net available to them. How big an issue is literacy and numeracy? Does SIPTU feel that it is getting the support and flexibility to be able to engage with those people to encourage them, through various mechanisms, back into education system? The reality, as we all know, is that in many instances those people have had a very poor experience of engagement with the education system to date. It is not a case of just providing them with a literacy or numeracy course; it is about encouraging them slowly, through various avenues, back into the system. Are the flexibility and support there to allow SIPTU to do that? Perhaps Mr. Mahon or some of the other witnesses could address those questions.