Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

In 2002, the progression to employment for CE participants was 41%, and in 2003 it was 46%. That means almost half of those on CE schemes progressed to full employment, the original and continuing motivation behind the CE programme itself. On the jobs initiative, there has been a progression of approximately 40%.

My preference is to transfer the social economy scheme to the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, since it supports community initiatives and has not really developed as a labour market progression measure. I have been in discussions with the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ó Cuív, with a view to moving it to his Department —"mainstreaming" might be the wrong term — to provide a more secure underpinning for those community enterprises supported by the social economy programme.

We should not write off CE participants when it comes to progressing to full-time employment. With that in mind, in my discussions with FÁS last November, I asked that the content of programmes be examined to see whether we might do more to get certain people on CE schemes back into the workplace. FÁS is in the process of modifying the content of the CE programme, and the new approach will see the introduction of an individual learner planning process that will focus on meeting participants' learning needs. That individual learner plan will provide for the planning, organisation and recording of the work experience, training and development that each participant receives while working in community employment. It is to include further training and development for supervisors, a new application process and quality assurance procedures. I hope it will provide additional benefits to FÁS clients on that programme.

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