Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, has developed the role of the social employment through the community services programme, which facilitates exactly what the Deputy has articulated.

The fundamental mandate of the community employment programme originally was as a labour activation measure. It was meant to be short term, to get people back into work. It was never meant to be a community or social support programme.

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