Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It is unfortunate that the Minister for Finance is not present, particularly in light of the level of interest among Members in this topic. It is unusual that no Minister from the Department of Finance is present and that is regrettable.

We are all too well aware of the important twofold role CE plays in supporting people, mainly from disadvantaged areas, to get back into the workforce through providing education and training opportunities and getting them to a point where they are work ready and in providing critical community facilities and services for people - whether they relate to the environment, child care or the elderly - that would not be provided otherwise if CE was not in place. The role of the CE supervisor is critical to the success of all those efforts. It is a challenging and responsible job and we should respect those who do that work.

Almost ten years ago, the Labour Court made a clear ruling that these people needed to be treated fairly and have pension provisions made for them in view of the responsible work they do. Subsequently, we had the economic crash and the extraordinary flexibility shown by unions and CE supervisors was exceptionally generous. They recognised that circumstances had changed and there was a need to pull back on that in spite of the fact they had an open-and-shut case, funding had been set aside and a full scoping exercise had been carried out by FÁS. We need a commitment from the Minister, on behalf of the Minister for Finance, regarding the full implementation of the then year old Labour Court ruling. That is why we are here. It is now time to deliver on that undertaking that was made almost ten years ago.

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