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

Jesus, I hope we would never deprive anybody of the opportunity to participate on an activation course supplied by the State. The problem, and the reason I made the changes alluded to by the Deputy's colleague a couple of weeks ago, was that Tús and the community employment, CE, companies were telling me they were finding it difficult to fill their courses. It is certainly not because we are refusing people.

As the Deputy may be aware, almost €840 million is being provided to be spent on working-age employment supports provided by the Department. It is totally recognised by the Government and probably by everybody in this House that work schemes such as Tús and CE are such positive initiatives. They enable the long-term unemployed to make a contribution to their communities while up-skilling themselves and making themselves familiar in a particular work environment.

As we all have seen, every single town and village in the country has a CE scheme. We know exactly not only how communities benefit from the work done on the schemes but also the huge benefit to the participants. They participate for a variety of reasons. Some are genuinely looking for activation, training and employment while others genuinely just want to give back to their community, be busy, be involved and be socially included.

To answer the Deputy's question specifically, Tús is delivered through 47 implementing bodies, or local development companies, and Údarás na Gaeltachta. At the end of December 2017, there were 6,409 participants on the Tús programme. The 2018 budget Estimate for Tús is just over €100 million. With the ongoing reductions in the numbers on the live register, which I hope will continue, it is necessary to ensure the number and nature of activation schemes, in addition to the conditions governing participation on them, continue to be appropriate to the people we are serving.

Deputies on all sides of this House are fully aware of the positive benefits of the rural social scheme, RSS, which is a supplementary income scheme for farmers and fishermen. The complete success of that scheme is recognised. Of all our schemes, that is the one that is oversubscribed. I am very pleased to be able to add 250 places to that particular scheme. They were allocated several weeks ago, and they are currently being filled.

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