Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to raise this important issue which is affecting participants and sponsoring groups the length and breadth of the country. Since its introduction in November 2004, the Government policy of capping FÁS community employment schemes has led to the termination of placements for hundreds of participants in County Tipperary. It is expected that 700 community employment workers will effectively be made redundant in Tipperary before the end of this year.

I urge the Minister to take immediate steps to remove this draconian and unnecessary cap on the scheme. Given the healthy state of the economy, using community employment participants as a cost saving to the State is unjust, unfair and an example of the downright meanness displayed by the Government. It is an abuse of power against these vulnerable people.

The participants on community employment schemes are involved in completing valuable work for the community. Many community groups, sporting organisations and tidy towns committees, could not undertake their worthwhile projects were it not for the crucial assistance of community employment participants. The scheme has played a very important role in improving community life across Tipperary and it is astonishing that the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, is determined to close down community employment schemes by stealth. As a result of this clampdown, many talented and deserving people will lose the opportunity to contribute to their communities in a meaningful way. Local communities are losing out on important and desirable schemes.

Many participants work in the community as personal assistants to severely disabled people. They work with young and old alike, they work in sports clubs, town councils, community development groups, in fact, the list is endless. It is a shameful indictment of this Government that community employment participants are under-estimated, undervalued and under-appreciated by the Minister and the Government.

Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats want to bring the hatchet down on community employment schemes without even a thought for the needs of either participants or the sponsoring projects. For the thousands of community and voluntary groups the removal of participants and the closure of schemes is a devastating blow. Groups are relying on community employment schemes to provide a level of staffing for certain tasks. If the Government is so intent on ending community employment schemes, an alternative source of staffing for community and voluntary groups will have to be found and funded by the Government.

The Minister should be aware of the impact of the capping policy on schemes in Tipperary. For example, in Annacarty the community employment scheme had 12 participants, but when the Minister, Deputy Martin, is finished with his axe it will be halved to six. The Clonoulty-Rossmore scheme had 16 participants but has been reduced to ten. The scheme operating in Cappawhite and Hollyford had 20 participants but with these savage cutbacks it will be reduced to ten. In south Tipperary, 82 people were effectively made redundant in January. Another 150 will lose their place on a scheme at the end of March. In total more than 300 people will lose a place on a community employment scheme in south Tipperary by the end of this year. In north Tipperary, during the course of the next 12 months, 411 people will lose these places on schemes. These staggering figures mean that community employment scheme numbers in County Tipperary will be more than halved before the year is out.

I have received numerous calls from community employment participants, many in their early or late fifties, who have been informed they are no longer needed on a scheme. Community employment schemes in Glengoole, Rathcabbin, Killenaule, and all across Tipperary are losing participants each week. It is outrageous that men and women who have served the community well on these community employment schemes are effectively being forced to retire early. These people feel there is little prospect of their getting any form of meaningful and productive employment.

Several of those who contacted me outlined that they had no transport of their own, and given their age, felt they had little hope of getting any other form of employment in the area. In the increasingly competitive marketplace, many people on community employment schemes have told me the scheme is the only form of work available to them.

There are schemes in Tipperary facing such uncertainty that some supervisors have informed me that their schemes could close before the end of the year. No scheme in Tipperary should be closed, wound down, or have participant numbers reduced. I urge the Government to immediately abolish the current policy of capping the number of years a person can participate on a community employment scheme and I seek the Minister's commitment that those participants affected will be swiftly reinstated.

Immediate changes must be made to the scheme to bring to an end the policy of capping. I urge the Minister to immediately reinstate those affected by this nonsensical capping rule. I further urge that if the community employment scheme is to be abolished by stealth, as current policy and practice would suggest, the Government should provide funding for an alternative source of staffing for the thousands of community and voluntary groups that have been adversely affected by this ridiculous capping policy.

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