Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. Those in question - one-parent families, deserted wives, widows, widowers and those with an illness benefit, disability allowance, invalidity or blind pension - are extremely vulnerable and marginalised. Surely, the idea is to encourage them into community employment schemes with added incentives. People will not join a CE scheme for the exact same money they would get on social welfare. It beggars belief the incentive which has worked for these schemes has been removed. I have known many people who have gone from these schemes into full employment, further training, post-leaving certificate courses and college. If these people are now precluded from entering a CE scheme, the other services they provide such as child care and after-schools supervision will also be gone. In turn, there will be more on the dole. Somewhere along the line, somebody is not joining the dots to keep people on these schemes instead of their having to go back on the dole.

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