Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

In addition, the jobs budget in May provided for over 20,000 new training and education places, while the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, announced a €20 million labour market activation fund to create a further additional 6,500 places for the long-term unemployed.

The Department of Social Protection will seek to minimise the effects of the changes on those affected. It will examine the income and expenditure of schemes with reference to their capacity to absorb some of these costs, particularly in the case of statutory organisations which, in many cases, have separate training and education budgets. Additionally, there are community and voluntary sponsoring organisations which receive funding from a multiplicity of State agencies. These will be examined with reference to their ability to continue programmes with reduced funding from the Department. There are a number of schemes which, through activities supported under the community employment scheme, generate significant income. These will also be included in the review.

The Department of Social Protection will work closely with the Department of Education and Skills with a view to providing training for community employment scheme participants. As the Deputy knows, FÁS community employment and labour placement aspects are now to be located in the Department of Social Protection. There is a revised and reformed approach to the way in which labour activation measures, including the training and education aspect, will be managed. The change announced in the budget must be considered in that context.

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