Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief because, as I remarked to Deputy Naughten, most of the questions I intended to ask have already been put by Deputy Kerrane, the Chairman and other members. As Deputy Kerrane is aware, I have been significantly involved with communities for many years.

As regards the Tús scheme, there is a small cohort of people who, for whatever reason, cannot hold down a job that starts at 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. I am not speaking about lazy people. It might be for family reasons or due to anxiety. One of the things I have noticed is that through the incredible work of supervisors, many of those people have had a life in recent years. I am sure Deputy Kerrane would say the same thing. Once they are trained in over the course of a couple of months - at times it is not simple to get people interested - they seem to take a significant interest in the work they are doing. Whether it is Tidy Towns, helping with caring or whatever else, they really do a good job. They would tell the committee that their life changes. In that regard and in the context of unemployment, there is a small cohort of people I would not like to see left out just because they could not link into a job in a local shop or factory. Are our guests conscious of that? I am sure they are. Can they understand from where I am coming? I have seen this with my own eyes and heard it from people who have been employed on schemes.

The issue with Tús is that it is too short a scheme. That issue has been raised already this morning. As the supervisors would tell us, it takes up to three months to get people into a routine but then their time is up before they really start doing the work. I would like that to be taken into account. There should be an understanding that there is a small group of people who just cannot cope. Sometimes it is down to family circumstances. They may need to look after a parent, aunt, uncle, brother or sister and just cannot get away from their house.