Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I am grateful for the opportunity of raising this matter. While I am delighted to see the Minister of State, I am somewhat sorry that the Minister, Deputy Martin, is not present to hear what I have to say. It concerns a matter, the community employment scheme, which forms now part and parcel of community life in every parish.

My constituency of Galway East is no different from any other. In January and February well over 100 community employment workers will be told to go home, in other words, they will be finished with CE and FÁS schemes. Some might say FÁS is just a training agency and the people concerned should be trained to do something else afterwards. However, there is a cohort who work for community groups which are sponsors. Most of the people concerned are in the age range of 57 to 62 years. Because of their lack of skills for the outside world, they will have no place to go and they are the first to admit this but they are outstanding workers at what they do. They build walls, look after grounds and take great pride in what they do. In 2008 most of them will be back on the dole, a place in which they do not want to be. The only thing staring them in the face is that for the next five or six years until they reach contributory old-age pension age they will be on the dole. They are needed not only in rural parishes but also by organisations in towns such as tidy towns committees, wheelchair associations and others involved in community work. What is even worse is that if they could be easily replaced, one could see another tranche coming to take their places but that is not the case.

About five years ago the Minister made a minor change which allowed CE participants to work an extra four or five years. Therefore, a precedent has been established. There is no reason this group could not be allowed to continue to work with dignity. Any doctor will say many are given a new lease of life by working on CE schemes because they meet their neighbours. For obvious reasons I cannot name any the people concerned but I wish to give an impression of the type of person involved.

The participants in one CE scheme who will be getting their walking papers in the middle of January include a man aged 59 years who is separated and living alone; a man aged 58 years who has a young child; another man also aged 58 years; a widow aged 57 years with no support in the world; two more aged 61 and 63 years, respectively; a person with a mental illness and a widower aged 61 years. They have no other place in the wide earthly world to get a job other than on a CE scheme. This situation is replicated all over the country. In the week or two before Christmas, if the Minister has any feelings at all — I do not care what the bosses in FÁS say about the training philosophy and all that jazz — he will need fix it only once because this tranche of people will not be there again and the matter will resolve itself in four or five years.

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