Ms Michele Rohan:

Regarding the networks, we have set up a national network. We have gone out to other counties around the country and established networks there as well and because there is zero training of supervisors now, the networks have become the training tool for new supervisors. We are training ourselves because there is no official or active training for supervisors going on. It is being left to the sponsors to train new supervisors. The abdication of responsibility by the Department is ridiculous when it comes to that. These networks that we set up ourselves are filling the gap because there is nothing else there. The questions that a new person will have can be put to the network. A high level of camaraderie and support for each other has been built up in the last 12 to 24 months. Only for the network, I do not know how some of the newer supervisors would manage. If there are any difficulties with queries from community development officers, CDOs, people can use the network as a tool to bounce ideas off. It has been a very positive addition for us.

I inquired about training for myself recently to keep up with the new payroll systems that were coming in and to make sure there were no changes that I had not spotted on our own payroll system. An online training course was advertised at a cost of €99. I am entitled to €250 for training which I have never used in the 12 years that I have been a supervisor. I was an assistant but now I am a supervisor. In the 12 years I have only ever been at one training session which was on the individual learner plan, ILP, system and which lasted for about two hours. I have never gone to any other training since. When I asked about this course and filled out the form, I also applied for it for one of the participants. The forms are uploaded onto the welfare partners site for approval by the CDO. The participant was allowed to do the course. I was asked for a separate form, which I filled out and got my sponsor to sign. Then I was asked for a justification. I had to justify my request for €99 worth of training. I am responsible for €500,000 of Government funding that comes through my scheme. Would that be enough justification, I wonder? I had to go to the trouble of justifying this. I honestly did not have the time and I decided not to do it. I was asked whether the course and the trainer were QQI recognised but the same questions were not asked when it came to the participant. I thought I should do this course just to make sure that I have all avenues covered but I had to go to so much trouble to get approval that I did not bother. I used my own intuition and reckoned that I could manage. It is something that I wanted to do but I could not get approval for €99.

As I said previously, our terms and conditions change all of the time. We have a responsibility to coach and mentor participants so that we can help them to decide the areas in which they need training to gain full-time employment. I do not have any training or qualifications in adult guidance counselling for education or anything like that.

I found an NUI course in Maynooth University. It was €2,500 for the first year. I would gain a qualification from it. I inquired about it and I was told that it was a great course. Some of the public servants and people working within Intreo services had done it. I inquired of them what they thought. They said it was an excellent course. The only difference was that I had to pay €2,500 for it. I would get €250 in support and, at a stretch, the it would be €500. The people who had done the course within the Intreo service did not have to pay for it. They did not need it for their job, but they were just doing it. I was expected to do this job without any training. I have not done that course because I do not have €2,500. I have two kids in college.

The second year of that course was going to be €3,000 and I would have to travel once a month to Maynooth, stay overnight and come back down. I could not do that. I used my own initiative and abilities to figure out what I thought would suit people to get off the live register and into full-time employment, which is my goal.

My experience of dealing with community development officers and Intreo services in Galway has always been positive. I have a good relationship with all of the people there. It is a pity that the policy unit that is causing the issues. I have dealt face to face with the members of the policy unit through the negotiations that we had over the last couple of years for our pension, which turned out to be a gratuity. I know these people. They are human beings like the rest of us. They are not the enemy. They have a job that they are supposed to do. It is what it is. They can come so far but they cannot go any further than that. It is a pity that it has declined into this “them and us” situation and that we cannot be adult about it and use common sense. When it comes down to having to justify a €99 course online, what is the point?