Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

The announcement has caused consternation among CE participants, supervisors and those who avail of their services. I do not know how the Minister will be able to stand over this but she stated in a recent letter that: "In the event that the reduction in the training and materials grant announced in the budget creates financial difficulties for schemes that would otherwise be viable, my Department will be in a position to fund such schemes from within the overall Department budget." That is welcome but it exposes how ridiculous it is to go ahead with cut in the grant. The letter also claimed no CE scheme would close pending the outcome of the review.

These schemes are valuable, especially in areas of severe disadvantage, because they provide services the State should provide. Many of them survive on a month to month basis and they need to plan the roll-out of the training aspect of the programme. They must plan in advance and if they are unsure of funding, they must go with a begging bowl to the Department and hope the Minister will listen. The announcement is disastrous. The Minister understands some of the schemes because, for instance, she attended the Liberties recycling training and development scheme and presented the FETAC awards.

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