Ms Geraldine Hurley:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. The first reason there are vacancies at the moment on CE and the other schemes is because of the positive labour market. I have the figures here that the Deputy was looking for. Of the 172,000 people on the live register, we would calculate around 45,000 are eligible for these schemes. That is a subset of the long-term unemployed. Approximately 70,000 or fewer are long-term unemployed, but some might be signing on for credit and things such as that as well. We would estimate there are around 45,000 who would be eligible CE or Tús as well. The point is well made in terms of matching that number of people to fill the vacancies that exist on the schemes as well. That work is ongoing with our Intreo offices, our case officers, CDOs and with schemes as well. Not everybody is interested in going on schemes, so our Intreo case officers are working with people on that as well. In addition, there are issues around geographical location. We are standardising and streamlining the referral process so that people who are eligible to go on schemes are being referred to schemes in the locality and other practical things as well.