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

I would prefer to have two sets of rules. I do not mind who owns the schemes or who funds them, but I do mind that it is not fair on people in communities who need sheltered employment and additional supports to be governed by the same rules as those we use for job activation schemes. It is just not fair and not feasible and I do no think I can stand over it. Whether we keep responsibility for the schemes and drugs rehabilitation schemes in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, which would be fine by us, or whether it moves naturally perhaps to the Department of Health, while responsibility for the RSS would perhaps move to the Department of Rural and Community Development will be discussed with the host CE companies and the interdepartmental group which will come up with a list of recommendations that best suits the future of the schemes to support them in the way they should be supported. It should be inclusive and not try to activate people from community employment schemes who cannot be activated for one or two years. The Deputy is aware that Ministers spend their weeks answering community employment scheme requests for persons to be allowed to stay on it for extra years. There are reasons people want to stay on it for the extra years and I believe we should have different rules governing the different strands.

See this speech in context