Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Snodaigh for raising this important issue and assure him that I am very familiar with the Oblates and am aware of this project. As the houses of my dad's sister and my grandad backed onto the grounds of the Oblates in Inchicore, I have known them all my life. Consequently, the Deputy may rest assured that I know exactly where we are talking about. It is an important project.

First, I wish to confirm that there is no departmental moratorium in place for sponsoring organisations in respect of the recruitment of community employment supervisors. I do not know why the Deputy might think some kind of moratorium was in place because this is not the case, and I now confirm this for him formally. Where the sponsoring organisation wishes to proceed and the number of participants employed on a project warrants the hiring of additional supervision, an application setting out the justification for the additional resource should be submitted by the sponsor to the Department for approval under the community employment supervisory grant. The community employment operating procedures outline the required ratio of supervision to number of participants, which on mainstream CE projects is 1:25. As the Deputy is aware, however, in practice it can often be considerably below that. Where the number of participants exceeds 25, an assistant supervisory post can be approved. Community employment schemes in the drug rehabilitation strand have a lower participant-to-supervisor ratio due to the different nature of the clients participating on these schemes. In the case of dedicated drugs rehabilitation schemes, the standard ratio is seven drugs rehabilitation referred participants and two mainstream participants to each supervisory post. As the Deputy is aware, since becoming Minister I have ring-fenced 1,000 places for people rehabilitating from drugs and other addictions. This adjusted ratio was agreed in consultation with statutory, community and voluntary sector representatives under the nine special conditions to support the delivery of drug rehabilitation places on community employment schemes.

I have been advised that officials from the Department met representatives from the Community Lynks Project special drugs CE scheme last Thursday, 27 February, to discuss matters with regard to a particular situation that has arisen in the scheme. I have been informed that a temporary supervisory post on a six-month contract had been due for completion last Friday. However, I understand this has been extended for one month to facilitate the scheme with regard to maintaining a sufficient number of participants to warrant this post. The matter will then be reviewed. Officials from the Department of Social Production confirmed to the Community Lynks representatives that there will be no change in the number of places on the scheme, at 40 approved places. The scheme currently has just 36 participants and has been asked to review the intake of participants to ensure sustainability of take-up of places on the scheme. Furthermore, officials have advised the scheme that they will sanction approval for additional places if the sponsors show a demand for such places.

I stated that as Minister I have ring-fenced 1,000 places, but as I have discussed from time to time with Deputies Ó Snodaigh and Maureen O'Sullivan in the Chamber, for reasons I do not understand these places are not fully taken up. People appear to be willing, but perhaps the Deputy can throw light on how this can happen because the Inchicore area has a serious issue with regard to the number of people who have problems. Moreover, people in neighbouring areas also have problems, and the opportunity for rehabilitation is really important for them. The Deputy is also aware that people participating in a rehabilitation scheme are entitled to three years in community employment, and if they make a case for it the Department will allow for a fourth year in order to ensure the person is able to recover and get his or her life back in an orderly, structured way. Indeed, quite a number of people succeed in so doing and perhaps move on to further training, education or another community employment scheme. That is how matters stand at present.

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