Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The cuts to community employment, CE, schemes in the 2012 budget were dressed up by the Minister for Social Protection and her colleagues as some form of enhancement of training opportunities and employment prospects for the jobless. Of course, they are nothing of the kind. They are spending cuts, plain and simple.

Why did the Minister announce a review of the schemes in the wake of the budget decision to cut? It was because the Labour Party came under enormous pressure, and rightly so, from communities across the State. Most reasonable people would have expected a review and then a decision about reorganisation and funding if such were necessary. Instead, we had the slashing of funding in the budget and a face-saving announcement of a review once people had realised what was about to be done to these schemes. The Minister herself admitted last week on the floor of this House that: "There is no shortage of reviews of community employment, of which there have been a great many right up to the time when community employment schemes joined my Department." The latest review is only a temporary reprieve, as the Minister herself admitted in the Dáil last week when she said that no CE scheme will be forced to close as a result of the reductions in training and material grants, "pending the completion of this review at the end of March". That is some certainty and assurance for people in community employment.

As the Sinn Féin motion states, the sequence of events since the budget has created confusion and frustration. Deputies of all opinion, if they are in touch with their communities, know that is the case. Initially, the focus was on the 66% cuts to the FÁS materials and training budget for CE schemes. It is this element that the Minister had to place under review because of the absolutely justified response to such a massive cut in the budgets of CE schemes.

Less attention was paid initially to the other, and very insidious, element of the cut. At the end of January, CE schemes were informed that new participants in CE schemes will not be able to claim another social welfare payment simultaneously. This includes one-parent family payment, deserted wife's benefit, widow's or widower's pension, illness benefit, disability allowance, invalidity pension and blind pension. From 20 February, the CE rate of payment for those who are also on one-parent family payment, deserted wife's benefit or widow's or widower's pension will be reduced to €108 and there will be no increases for qualified children.

The materials and training budget cuts are bad enough, but the related social protection payment cuts will be especially damaging. The participants in one project, who made representations to us, put it very well when they said:

The budget cuts from FÁS, if implemented, will damage our programme, but the changes notified on 26 January 2012 have the potential, over a two year period, of possibly closing the programme down. This prediction is based on our current position, where we have 18 adult recovering drug misusers on our CE programme, 14 on disability or illness benefit, two on one-parent family payment and two others, and on the fact that our programme attracts a high proportion of people on disability or illness benefit.

This is a prime example of the type of special CE programme that would be worst affected by these cuts. In this case, the programme plays an important role in recovery and rehabilitation for former misusers of drugs. Not only does it have a role in serving the community and providing training and employment, it also has an important public health function. This is but one example of many others across the State.

Has the Minister even considered the effect of these cuts on community child care? This is one of the range of services affected which provide vital supports for people requiring care, such as meals on wheels for incapacitated older people and after-school projects for children.

These cuts are hitting the most vulnerable in our society. Are we to have a situation where, at the end of March, the Fine Gael-Labour Government approves the hand-over of €3.1 billion to Anglo Irish Bank bondholders and, at the same time, confirms these CE cuts? That is a prospect, most certainly. Is that what people voted for when they voted the Government into office, most especially when they voted Fine Gael into office?

I acknowledge that the only Government representatives in the Chamber for this debate are Labour Party Deputies. I know that each of them cares about this issue. I urge the Minister to allow the situation to maintain, to put these cuts aside entirely, despite the review, and accept the Sinn Féin motion. It represents the views of the overwhelming number of her elected colleagues in this Chamber.

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