Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State's announcement of changes to the community employment schemes. I do not know why the Government took two years to make those changes. There was a 50% reduction in places over two years. Although I am sure the Government Deputies, and certainly all of us in Opposition, were being lobbied by community groups for many years, it has only now come to the Government's notice that it must act to preserve some of the schemes and the valuable work they do. How many places are there in 2004 on community employment, social economy and job initiative schemes? What was the budget allocated for 2004 for those schemes?

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