Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

I wish to raise the issue of the revised points for eligibility for ring-fenced projects agreed by FÁS. In particular, I wish to zero in on one such project, the community after schools project known as CASPr. The project has been operating in the north-east inner city of Dublin since 1995 and I need not tell Members about the level of social and educational disadvantage suffered by that part of the north inner city over generations. CASPr is an impressive project that provides child care and educational support programmes for more than 120 children from local schools in the five to 12 year age group. It provides training for local adults from the community, many of whom were early school leavers, and runs a crèche that caters for up to 15 children. In addition, the project runs two community employment schemes under the FÁS community services programme and this assists in the staffing of all its after-school programmes.

CASPr is an accredited training centre that provides high level training up to the top level of FETAC qualifications. Since CASPr is based in a local drugs task force area, one of its community employment schemes achieved a special ring-fenced T-code status which focuses on drug prevention, education and rehabilitation. Effectively, this has meant CASPr can recruit young adults under the age of 25 years, despite the general eligibility criterion that it is for the over-25s. Moreover, because of this special status, extensions of three years normally are given and this has enabled the project to continue to attract into training and productive employment within the community a large number of people who are at risk of drug abuse.

As a matter of routine, CASPr sought extensions for three of the participants, all of whom were under 25 years and who had completed their first year, but it was told flatly that they would only be given a three-month extension because a review was in train. This was news to CASPr. The project has been informed of a recent change to the eligibility for T-code or ring-fenced projects following a recent review. I must emphasise this review did not include service providers. CASPr has been informed there are nine revised points of eligibility. I again emphasise these points of eligibility were arrived at without consultation with service providers in the field and at no point did FÁS consult CASPr. This is a source of concern for both CASPr and, as Members will understand, the wider community within the north inner city which depends so heavily on this service. Consequently, I look forward to the Minister of State's response on this important project and the provision of training services.

See this speech in context