Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

- calls on the Government to immediately reverse the cut of 66% to the community employment (CE) schemes' training and materials budget and to immediately reinstate the training and materials budget to 2011 levels;

- notes that:

- the proposed Department of Social Protection review is creating confusion and frustration; and

- these budget cuts will affect some of the most vulnerable in our society and will force CE schemes to close;

- recognises the:

- essential services provided by CE schemes to the public and their participants;

- important role CE schemes play in providing training to the long-term unemployed; and

- key role special CE schemes play in providing community-based drug rehabilitation;

- acknowledges the important role CE schemes have played in providing child care facilities and assisting people back into education;

- condemns the abolition of concurrent payments and the CE qualified child increase paid to lone parents on CE;

- further notes that these cuts make participation in CE unaffordable for most lone parents, thereby threatening the community child care infrastructure, and calls on the Government to reverse these cuts;

- further recognises the important role CE schemes have played in providing training and education to lone parents; and

- calls on the Government to engage fully with CE schemes and their representatives, with the view to extending the CE schemes by increasing the number of CE places available, including special CE schemes, and enhancing the training available to participants.

I wish to share time with Deputies Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Seán Crowe, Mary Lou McDonald and Martin Ferris, in that order.

See this speech in context