Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have our ways. Everything the Deputy has said is true. There are hundreds, if not thousands of participants, in CE and Tús schemes who are doing social inclusion activities and our communities desperately rely on them. The problem is my Department was not established, and CE and Tús were not established, to provide social inclusion services. It is an employment activation measure. It is no different from JobPath, which is not commercial; it is an employment activation measure. The sole purpose in statute for the organisations that are hosting CE and Tús schemes is to give employment experience and opportunities to people so they can move on to full-time sustainable jobs. The dilemma we have is that tens of thousands of people who have participated in them will probably never - or will never want to - get a full-time sustainable job. I do not know how to change that because if I change it, it will not be an employment activation scheme and will not fall under the remit of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. I acknowledge there are thousands of people on CE schemes who respect and value the social inclusion services they provide but do not achieve employment activation. We need to square that circle by acknowledging, respecting and rewarding what they are doing but not under the guise of employment activation because if we continue to call these schemes employment activation schemes, we have to continue to move people on which is causing upset to the host organisations, the community service organisations and groups and the people who are doing the work.

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