Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The outcome of the review will inform the overall approach my Department will take to securing the best outcome for schemes and their participants, taking account of the large amount of money we spend on them. We spend the guts of €1 billion on employment schemes, some €315 million of which is spend on community employment schemes and the approximately 22,000 places provided. The 1,300 scheme supervisors are paid approximately €57 million. It is important that we be aware of these figures. There will be no reduction in the number of community employment scheme places.

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