Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

It is probably fair to say that there are no plans to change the nature of the scheme or the conditionality of it. That would be a different policy choice for the Government to make if it was to make it. The real issue is that we have funding and authority for a certain number of spaces and we have a requirement to try to use that to best effect. There is no doubt but that CE schemes have contributed enormously to economies right across the country, to social economies and economic activity as well. One of the difficulties is that the purpose of the scheme initially was as an employment progression scheme. In some instances, it had turned into a social participation scheme. We need to clearly recognise the distinction between both. There are social engagement schemes and then there are schemes that are actually trying to equip people to move back into employment. We have to try to be mindful of the fact that there are a couple of hundred thousand people on the live register and we have to try to keep the long-term unemployed in touch with the labour market. We have to use the resources available to us to the most efficient effect in line with current Government thinking. There has been no signal to me that it is changing at the moment.