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

The date for the final meeting will be set in the next day or two. I know that I said "shortly" in July, but this "shortly" is different. I expect the last meeting of the interdepartmental group to be held in the coming weeks, if not earlier. It is at that meeting that decisions will be made on the recommendations, so I cannot tell the Deputy now what will be decided. It will be decided at that meeting. From there, the report will have to go to a senior officials' group, then a sub-Cabinet group, then Cabinet.

I would be very pleased for the Oireachtas joint committee to hold a lengthy discussion of the report at that stage so that it can tell me whether it agrees with it or whether there are parts of it with which it disagrees. It should be remembered that it was the submissions that came from our CE hosts and CE participants and supervisors that carried the most weight for me. I am very mindful of the value of the schemes. To be honest, I do not believe we recognise their value as much as we should. I would like to establish some method of formally recognising the value of community employment schemes throughout the country during the coming weeks.

To answer the Deputy's question, I expect all of this to be done long before the end of this Dáil session. This is a 14-week session and I would like to wrap this up in the next few weeks.

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