Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. The Minister is correct that the motivation of these schemes is to help people back into full time employment and in that regard they are succeeding. However, currently there are many schemes with no participants. I would like to know the reason there are no participants on some schemes and what can be done to encourage greater participation in schemes. Is this because more people are being employed or because of a lack of throughput of lists? I am not here to criticise the system in overall terms but if the schemes are to work as effectively as we would all like then it is important that when one participant finishes he or she is replaced within a few days to ensure continuity in the system for participants and communities but that is not happening. I can bring the Minister to a host of schemes in Naas, Kilcock, Maynooth, Celbridge, Leixlip and Clane that are suffering because of a lack of participants. There are massive gaps between one participant finishing on a scheme and another starting, if at all.

There is another problem in regard to JobPath. Many people take up places in Tús while awaiting a place on JobPath. These people are required to meet once a week with a case officer who helps them to get back into full time employment. Many of these people, because of their age profile, may not get back into full time employment. If such people were allowed to remain on a Tús scheme and continue to meet with their case supervisor on a regular basis in relation to obtaining full time employment this would ensure that the Tús scheme and community could still avail of and benefit from their input.

In regard to the CE scheme, I know people who were earmarked for CE schemes but had to take up positions on JobPath because of a delay in the commencement of the CE scheme. If two or three weeks after these people took up positions on JobPath the vacancies arose for which they were earmarked and all involved wanted them to do, including their case officers, supervisors etc., they could not take them up because they were required to complete their time on the JobPath scheme. They are now locked into the JobPath scheme for a year. There are very restrictive practices around these schemes that need to be reviewed.

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