Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me an opportunity to raise this issue on the Adjournment. On 5 April, I received a letter from FÁS, the training and employment authority, in response to a representation I made to the authority regarding employment for a worker as a book-keeper. Part of the reply read as follows:

Furthermore, the FÁS budget for Community Employment has been reduced by approximately €1 million, resulting in cutbacks in the south east region with cuts of 22 to be achieved in Tipperary South by the end of April.

Over the next week or ten days, I was contacted by scheme sponsors, participants and supervisors on the scheme. The situation is significantly worse than indicated initially in the reply from FÁS. It transpires that 193 participants on community employment schemes will lose their employment by December this year, and a further 30%, or one in three, of the supervisors will also lose employment. This is as a result of the financial cutbacks but, more importantly, as a result of the three-year cap which the Minister introduced for participants in the scheme aged 40 to 55 years.

This reduction is almost 50% of the number of participants involved in schemes in Tipperary South. Approximately 500 participants are involved in schemes in the constituency. By the end of this year, that number will almost be halved. This will be a significant blow to local communities. It will decimate the schemes. It will mean that schemes will have to close, amalgamate and, over a period of two to three years if this capping is not reversed, we will see the demise of community employment schemes.

I would like to indicate the type of valuable work carried out by people involved in these schemes in just two towns in South Tipperary. In Cashel, for instance, there are a number of schemes. The first scheme is a Cashel Town Council scheme which is basically an environmental scheme. There is also a scheme in the town by South Tipperary County Council which is an environmental tidy towns scheme, a parish scheme which supports local social services and the local community radio in the town, a sports scheme which supports the local pitch and putt, tennis, GAA, soccer and rugby clubs, a Cashel town heritage scheme which supports heritage and development in the town, a Brú Ború scheme which supports Irish cultural events in Brú Ború in Cashel, a Brothers of Charity scheme and a Nagle centre scheme which supports children with disabilities in the town of Cashel.

Fifteen miles down the road in Tipperary town, there is a care of the elderly scheme, the Excel scheme which supports cultural activity in the Excel centre in the town, the Canon Hayes centre scheme which supports all sorts of community sporting activity in the town, a community centre scheme which includes social services, meals on wheels and so on, a Moorehaven scheme and a Knockanrawley resource centre scheme and an omnibus scheme which does excellent work in the Tipperary town. That is mirrored in every town and village throughout the county.

If this capping is not reversed, there will be significant loss of employment and significant decimation in the services provided by the schemes. The services are not being provided by another individual or agency. It is a very short-sighted proposal because the cost of with continuing these schemes is minimal. It costs approximately €20 a week per participant when one takes into account that unemployment benefit, or some other type of social welfare payment will have to be paid. Will the Minister seriously consider reversing this capping and the financial cutbacks in these schemes because otherwise significant damage will be done to the fabric of society in towns and villages throughout the county?

See this speech in context