Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In recent years community and voluntary groups the length and breadth of this island kept the country going when at times it looked like an impossible task. In particular, in rural Ireland when few other supports were at hand, the community and voluntary sector came to the forefront in delivering local services such as meals on wheels, tidy towns projects and maintaining towns and villages throughout the countryside. For many voluntary groups to survive, they need a workforce such as those that can be provided by work schemes, for example, the rural social, RS, scheme, community employment, CE, scheme and the Tús scheme. Workers on those schemes have worked diligently, many of them carrying out work usually done by local authorities which they can no longer do due to embargoes on recruitment of road maintenance staff.

In the past 12 months, it has become more difficult for community and voluntary groups to access workers, especially in rural areas where rules and guidelines are taking over from what was previously work on the ground. It cannot be more simple. A person who is in receipt of a social welfare payment and who cannot get another type of employment should be able to go on a work scheme and stay on it until employment is found for him or her. Instead of that being the case many people who are called to go on CE, Tús or RS schemes in rural areas in particular have been told they are on JobPath and although they do not have a job they are not allowed to go on any other work scheme until JobPath finds them a job. That is causing a nightmare for community and voluntary groups in filling positions to carry out works in the community, leaving many of them without a workforce, especially as many CE workers are now only allowed to stay on a scheme for 12 months and have to go back on welfare after that period.

It could not be more simple. If a worker is on a work scheme working while in receipt of a welfare payment, he or she should be commended on doing so and should be left on it until he or she finds employment. All those problems are not intended by the Department of Social Protection to undermine community and voluntary groups but that is the effect they are having. That is the case in particular in rural communities where a pool of suitable workers has to meet with such criteria and people find it almost impossible to get on a scheme. The new obstacles are creating nightmares for groups and leaving local communities without a workforce in many cases. I called in the programme for Government for separate rural and urban work schemes because one hat does not fit all. It is becoming more clear that rural issues such as low employment, low population and rural isolation are not entering into the mindset of those city-based individuals in the Department of Social Protection. I urge the Taoiseach to set up separate rural and urban work schemes and immediately reverse the rules which prevent a person on JobPath from being able to work on any other scheme.

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