Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I have discussed this on a number of occasions with the Deputies present in the House. Responsibility for CE schemes transferred to the Department of Social Protection on 1 January and the review within the Department of Social Protection could commence only at that point. There was a commitment to two reviews, both of which are under way and which should be completed by the end of March. The Deputy referred to the reduction in the overall budget, but that is in the context of my Department's employment support budget increasing by €95 million. In addition an extra €20 million is being provided to the Department of Education and Skills for training initiatives. We need to consider how we can best provide CE schemes where there is an element of training. In some schemes there is a very strong training content and in other schemes the training element simply may be at the beginning of a person's participation and may not continue in the years thereafter.

Some fascinating information is available and becoming available on CE schemes. While I do not want to prejudge the outcome of the review, in some schemes they are paying very high rents and in other schemes they have significant costs in areas such as insurance and audit. In some of those schemes it would be possible to make significant savings.

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