Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Quinn raised the point about pressures on the indigenous markets and asked if we would look at the community employment schemes. We reformed those last year to try to facilitate the continuation of people on community employment programmes. I transferred the social economy scheme to the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs with a view to seeing that as a social support which leads to the employment of people and recognising that it was there to support communities and not as a labour market intervention. Approximately 24,000 people are on CE schemes. Some counties report that they cannot fill the schemes. I was recently on the Inishowen Peninsula where the supervisors of CE schemes said they had difficulty getting people to participate.

See this speech in context