Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Clearly, community employment helps communities, but its primary purpose is to help the individual through providing a bridge from unemployment to full-time work. That should remain the primary focus.

Regarding Deputy Hayes's question on the over-50s and over-55s, we must be careful that we allow enough capacity within the overall programme to absorb new entrants from the unemployment register on to CE schemes so that there is genuine progression. The danger, if we get into the business of people remaining on CE schemes for ever, is that we might end up with no space and no possibility of access. We made significant changes last November, and I want those to bed down to see how they are operating. We will analyse and evaluate that situation not only in the context of the Deputy's questions but to see how it has worked hitherto. We will see if there is more room for the type of thing the Deputy suggested.

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