Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The community employment schemes and the operational budget both come into the Department of Social Protection on 1 January. The Department has not been in charge of community employment scheme operations through FÁS and will not be until FÁS staff come into the Department in the new year. People should understand that the key change arises from that fact and from the fact of the difficulties in the FÁS organisation that have resulted in the changes to FÁS, whereby the labour services side comes into the Department of Social Protection and the training and further education side goes into SOLAS and the Department of Education and Skills.

I have much personal experience of community employment and I recognise everything the Deputies have said about its value. I was out in Coolock the other night, talking to people in this regard, as I am sure Deputy Broughan knows. If we are honest, we have to say that not every community employment scheme has the same positive outcomes for the people who participate.

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