Mr. Seamus Briscoe:

The cuts had a disastrous effect on training in the first seven or eight months until the reintroduction of a training budget, of sorts, amounting to approximately €250 per participant. We were devoid of training, meaningful or otherwise, unless it could be sourced free of charge by the scheme, the supervisor or the sponsors, from the VEC or elsewhere. Schemes have been very successful in sourcing literacy and further education programmes through the VEC or through the agencies that provide them. We were successful in getting people to junior certificate and even leaving certificate standard. It is often left to a supervisor to deduce that a person has a literacy difficulty or is dyslexic and to progress that person to the next level of education. We have had success stories in that regard.

The figure of €250 is 50% of what we were previously allowed. The question about childminding is not pertinent to my area of expertise, which is the sporting and social area. We begin the first rung of the ladder when the supervisor assesses the one-to-one relationships with the participants. Even after they leave the schemes, we do our best to progress the participants, and they frequently go on to achieve qualifications, to degree level in some cases. We begin them on the first rung of the ladder with regard to the required FETAC qualifications and modules. The resulting end product is qualification up to degree level in some cases. I have been fortunate to experience this on my own scheme. I hope this answers the committee's questions about the training process.