Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I am pleased that his heart is in the right place on this issue.

I bring the Minister of State back some months to when he visited the Liberty recycling place in Bluebell, Ballyfermot. He gave a speech and commented on how important the service was, especially for people going through addiction who were trying to get their lives back onto some kind of path. There is hope for them.

Last Monday after the "Would You Believe" programme which feature Liberty Recyling, I visited the place again. The President of Ireland came to see the operation and the 50 people working there, all of them on CE schemes. What came across from the President's speech was how important it is for all of us as a community to ensure that people who really want to get their lives back together are supported as much as possible. I know the Minister of State is fully supportive of this.

The difficulty about these projects is that they are very short-term. For the number of years Liberty Recycling has been going, since 1999, everybody who has come in on a CE scheme has been short-term only, working for three years. There might be the odd 55 year old who is able to stay for four years. What happens then is that the person is thrown back into the wilderness where it is very difficult for him or her to find a job, especially at this time. At the time of the "Would You Believe" programme a girl worked in the office who had to leave because her time was up. The Minister of State probably saw her. I felt very angry because she had a real opportunity to stay there for another while, participating in that project, perhaps coming out in two years' time, in better condition than the way she is leaving now, and with more hope. She is going out now into a workforce where very many people are seeking work.

The Minister of State said he supports these schemes. Will he and his Government support them by trying to put in place a longer term for community employment schemes, especially for people in projects like this one? It is very important for them. As the Minister of State said, it is about education and health but is also about companionship and being part of a small community, namely, the CE workforce. It is when they are sent out into the bigger, wilder world that such people can fall down.

I ask the Minister of State, through his Government, to consider giving these people a longer work time and help them stay within these projects, fulfilling what they want to do, going out into the world eventually to take on their role again and be part of society.

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