Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The RSS is very different from the CE schemes. People on CE schemes are supposed to be looking for regular employment. People on the RSS already have regular employment as farmers or fishermen. Given that they cannot derive an adequate income from their regular employment, RSS is an additional top up to the income they make from farming or fishing. They are very different schemes for very different purposes.

Many CE supervisors are having difficulty filling their schemes and I am considering a number of measures to widen the pool of people from whom they can choose. There are people timed out due to a rule in 2000, and I am considering lifting it. Although I cannot afford to do it now, in the next budget I would like to increase the amount of additional money a person on a CE scheme receives. It is only approximately €20, and some people, particularly in rural areas, are almost worse off as a result of participating.

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