Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I appreciate the Deputy's concern that people working in care need to be trained. People working in care generally or community organisations that deal with children or vulnerable adults must be vetted by the Garda.

The Tús scheme was designed by the former Minister for Social Protection as a kind of urban copy of the rural social scheme. Many Deputies will be aware of the latter, which has been quite successful in a targeted way in respect of activities in rural communities. The opportunity afforded in these communities should also be available in urban areas.

When I became Minister, I found that none of the 5,000 places available had been activated. In terms of the number of people looking for opportunities to be actively involved in some kind of community development or work it is important that we operate the scheme and offer those opportunities. The scheme is carefully supervised. In many areas the advertisements for supervisors have been published, supervisors have been taken on and the scheme is proceeding to take on applicants who will be engaged in the work. I will bear in mind what the Deputy said about concern but as the local development companies will be the managers of the schemes it will be their responsibility to design the work programme for people taking part in the scheme in a way that does not give rise to the concerns the Deputy has expressed.

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