Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)

I welcome the announcement that there will be changes both to the employment subsidy scheme and the work placement scheme. It is interesting how a week of questions at committee meetings can bring about those types of changes. While there have been more than 2,000 graduate applications, there is a shortage of companies applying to participate in the graduate employment scheme. We have been debating labour activation schemes and related issues for a year and a half but of the two schemes put in place by the Government, one has been only moderately successful and the other is clearly a failure, with only a few hundred places on offer. What types of changes are envisaged in order to attract more companies? We had a useful discussion at Tuesday's meeting of the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment which was attended by officials from the Department and from Enterprise Ireland. There was general agreement that changes are required to allow a greater number of social welfare recipients to take up places on such schemes. I acknowledge that the Department has undertaken to introduce changes but am interested to know precisely what those changes comprise.

Is there any proposal to lift the cap of 2,000 on the number of positions available under the work placement programme? There would be no significant cost in such an expansion. Will the Minister of State indicate whether his Department is in negotiations with the Department of Social and Family Affairs with a view to changing the rules to allow persons currently drawing down social welfare benefits to work? A change was made in respect of volunteers and the same should be done to allow more people to participate in new community schemes.

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