Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)

My party supports the motion put forward this evening and calls on the Government to reverse its plan to cut the materials budget for community employment schemes throughout the State. The Minister, Deputy Joan Burton, said it is not the Government's intention to close down any community employment schemes. That is certainly not the view of the people participating in community employment schemes across the country or of those organisations for which such schemes are a key part of the activities they carry out. We have heard the same claims from the Government in regard to various other cuts. We are told, for example, that there is no intention to close hospital beds and hospitals. Yet when it comes to the crunch, the opposite is the case.

We are now hearing from the Minister, Deputy Burton, that it is not her intention to close down any community employment schemes. However, she must realise that the materials grants, which heretofore amounted to €1,500 per participant, are an essential component in the day-to-day operation of these schemes. To make a cut of this magnitude unilaterally, without any consultation, discussion or review - to use a favoured word of the Government - is unacceptable. The 66% reduction in the materials grant, from €1,500 to €500, is effectively putting many of these schemes in jeopardy.

That is the message the Minister will get if she talks to scheme supervisors, participants and sponsoring organisations. They have no doubt that this cut is putting the very future of their schemes in danger. That is why so many of them throughout the State have come together, held meetings and met public representatives, both Opposition and Government Members, to get this message across. It is also why the Minister, Deputy Burton, has launched her famous review, a review announced only after she decided to make the cut and in response to the pressure she came under-----

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