Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Mahon for his presentation. CE is so important. We often come into contact with CE schemes and community and voluntary organisations that have CE workers. I wish to raise a few points. Mr. Mahon mentioned briefly CE workers in sports organisations. There are people who are involved with sports clubs and who cut the grass, line the pitches and perhaps do a bit of maintenance work. Indeed, in the past I have come across a number of individuals with very specific skill sets. They were coaches, mentors and trainers, but they could not use any of those skills at the clubs where they were working as part of the CE scheme. I am also aware of people joining CE schemes and perhaps wanting to progress into working in fitness or coaching, and getting their coaching badges. I think there is an aspect of the sports-related part of the CE scheme that is missing. Young people or others coming back into the workforce would really benefit from that retraining. They could find a new career path.

A jobseeker who previously worked as a general operative might have always wanted to be a coach or mentor and might ask whether there is a way to become one. Since the fitness industry is now massive, is there a way we can utilise the CE scheme to enable what I describe?

The briefing note states €375 million was allocated last year whereas only €320 million was spent. There is not enough money for training. An argument could be made that unspent money could be used the following year to increase the training budget to get more people involved. I do not know what happens an allocation if it is not spent in the year in which it is allocated. Does it go back to the Department?

I was interested in the comment that organisations are overwhelmed with documentation. Many organisations are overwhelmed by it. The same kind of information must go to different governmental organisations. This seems really strange. I worked for Tusla. When the prevention, partnership and family support service was formed, families were being asked to produce the same documentation time and again for various organisations the agency was working with. That has all been simplified now and one form goes to all the other organisations. It is important in that it frees up CE supervisors and community and voluntary organisations from having to process an overwhelming volume of documentation. Could the witnesses comment on that?

I am not a huge fan of JobPath and the impact it is having on people. There are people being mandated to opt for it as opposed to self-selection. One will get much better outcomes from a person who wishes to be at a place as opposed to being forced into a place. That is completely logical.

Last week we had carers before us. An issue arose over the 18.5 hours for which they are allowed to work. They are excluded from CE because it involves 19.5 hours. Is that the minimum or the maximum?