Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

While the motion is on a particular issue relating to pensions for supervisors and assistant supervisors, I will make some general points. My involvement in community employment began in the days of AnCO, quite a long time ago in the 1970s. I did voluntary work with two organisations, namely, the youth centre at St. Mary's youth club in East Wall and the Cavan Centre outside Ballyjamesduff. I can state that the employment schemes provided by AnCO at the time and later had a massive impact. The youth club had funding to build the frame of the centre but it was people on the employment schemes who did all of the work inside, including the painting and decorating. It was the same at the Cavan Centre. Today it relies on community employment schemes for essential physical work and maintenance that allows it to provide a space for holidays and weekends for training, respite and outdoors pursuits. This is being provided primarily for those who come from disadvantaged areas. I know the effect of the feud on the constituency I represent and how invaluable the centre has been to give that respite to families.

As well as what the schemes provide for the organisations they also provide training for the participants that will help them to move on to employment when their time on the scheme has ended. Participants were facilitated in doing courses. For some people, their time on the scheme finished before their course finished so an appeal had to be made. Some of those appeals were successful and others were not. It was always very disappointing to see people who had put so much into their course who had to finish on the scheme before the final qualification.

In more recent times, the loss of the double payment had a very detrimental effect on the schemes I know in Dublin Central. Some of those schemes relied on community employment to provide essential services, especially those involved in childcare. They provided childcare in areas of significant disadvantage. The schemes found themselves without enough participants so the childcare service they had been providing could not continue to do its work and the service was reduced.

I want to mention special drug rehabilitation community employment schemes, which have been of great support to those in recovery. They need greater flexibility regarding duration for those with addiction issues and for those with mental health issues. Sometimes it can take two years to get the person on the scheme ready for the scheme itself. This is where the flexibility is needed.

Being nice about it, the schemes are a very cost-effective way of providing services. Being truthful, they are a very cheap way to provide services and, without them, many communities will be left in very difficult situations.

The skills and work of the supervisor and the assistant supervisor are vital to the success of the schemes, particularly those that are especially challenging.

I was looking at Fianna Fáil's motion. The pension issue has not been addressed and has been ongoing since the early 2000s. We had the Labour Court agreement in 2008, but the work of high-level forum did not progress. When I look at the motion, I hope that, at the very least, the Government will immediately accept the first three points in the hope that by realising these three aspects, it would lead to a resolution of the fourth aspect because not doing so could have negative effects. It could lead to industrial action and there is no community, rural or urban, that would not be affected such is the significance of the community employment scheme.

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