Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

This motion is broad ranging but its focus is community employment schemes. One would have to wonder how many of the schemes will survive in light of the measures announced in the budget.

The only value the Government sees in the scheme is progression to work. The last time I looked there were close to 450,000 people unemployed. That, of course, is the official figure. In the construction sector, for example, those who worked under C2 certificates and those who were formerly self-employed are not even counted because they are not entitled to sign on. The figure could be significantly above that talked about. Finding work will be difficult and making people redundant from community employment schemes, where they offer a valuable service to the community, is daft. The value to the community of community employment schemes needs to be evaluated.

It is not enough simply to count their cost and progression to work as the only benchmarks of their success. I have been on the board of the County Kildare Centres for the Unemployed for 15 years. Their services are needed and appreciated now more than ever and the demands on those services are very high. That service could have to close its doors because the materials and training grant makes the difference between keeping it open and closing it. I have also been on the board of a community sports centre, which has good progression rates. However, there are huge benefits to the community across the age spectrum from that centre where children and young people are involved in sport.

Most people who are involved in community employment schemes do not have an MA or a PhD. Can we please look at the value of the schemes rather than at the one dimensional rates of progression to work? They are much more than that.

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