Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I recognise the full value of the CE schemes, especially for participants in rural communities. They provide vital social and community services that otherwise could not be afforded by many organisations. These include childcare, including early childhood care, environmental and resource work, bus driving, caretaking and other work of this kind. They are very much part of the local voluntary and sports organisations. Participants do fantastic work within their communities. It is crucial that we broaden the CE schemes to include a greater number of people on the live register and that we standardise conditions in respect of duration, pay and the training budget allocated for each scheme.

I would like to get an understanding of what we are doing to improve the budget around training and make it more attractive for participants to uptake into the CE schemes.

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