Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Okay.

We are hoping the unions will come back and there have been talks with ICTU on this. We understand where it is coming from in that regard.

On public service reform and more particularly about the CE scheme supervisors Deputy McDonald mentioned, I will point out that Fianna Fáil have not been in government since 2011 and I certainly have not been in any executive position since then. I have always been a strong supporter of community employment generally and was when I was Minster for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Around that time, I changed the policy to protect the numbers involved in CE schemes, as well as the supervisors and those on the job initiative scheme at that time. The submission is with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, will consider the issue around the entitlements of supervisors and their claims, which were arbitrated a long time ago in the Labour Court. I will engage with the Minister about that. There have obviously been very significant challenges over the last three months since the Government was formed due to the impact of Covid-19, the financial and economic impact of the pandemic and the need to intervene across the board for a whole range of people in and out of employment, schemes and so on. We will be examining that issue.

On section 39 organisations, I raised this while in opposition. Unions got involved and there were negotiations around that and a process had been put in place for those workers. Again, the Ministers for Public Expenditure and Reform and for Finance and the wider Government will continue to examine that.

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