Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

In addition, there are community and voluntary sponsoring organisations which receive funding from a multiplicity of State agencies and which will be examined in terms of their ability to continue programmes with funding from the Department of Social Protection. The Department will be working closely with the Department of Education and Skills with a view to providing training for community employment scheme participants.

It is welcome that my ministerial colleague, Deputy Brendan Howlin, has allocated another €20 million for activation measures to help to get people back to work and educational training, including a planned programme for people with disabilities. As the Government signalled yesterday, I will be proposing an amendment on Committee Stage to withdraw sections 8 to 10, inclusive, of the Bill.

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