John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter and I thank the Minister for Social Protection for attending this debate. In the budget it was announced that the training and materials grant for community employment schemes was to be reduced from €1,500 to €500. When a project is approved by FÁS, a contract is entered into for a 12-month period. Many schemes were signed up for towards the end of last year and will run until October or November 2012. In those cases, most of the money was spent or taken account of before the cuts were implemented on 1 January. In the aftermath of the budget, I welcome the Minister's decision to review the schemes. The review started in the last few days, but what good is that if the schemes are already being cut back? Contracts have been entered into. In recent months we heard of highly paid civil servants who had entered into contracts for large pensions which cannot be changed, yet people on CE schemes can have their payments cut off with a few weeks notice.

In my own constituency there are 40 projects with approximately 850 participants. These people and the projects in which they participate support local communities by offering a myriad of services, including child care, village enhancement and meals-on-wheels. I see Deputy Dara Calleary on the other side of the House. He will know of the work of CE schemes for the Moy salmon festival.

I ask the Minister to allow existing contracts to be honoured and to postpone the changes proposed in the review until the current schemes are being renewed.

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