Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I also place a major emphasis on the importance of CE schemes. I am aware of the CE recruitment challenges arising from the current restrictions, which has had an impact on the ability of some CE schemes to recruit new participants.

Community employment is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantage persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary fixed-term basis. CE schemes make a valuable contribution to local communities through the provision of services and my Department will continue to support them with this.

I reassure the Deputy, and the CE scheme in Skibbereen, that there will be no sudden ending for this number of contracts on whatever the final date of extensions will be. Subsequent to the final extension date, there will be a planned ending of contracts on a phased basis, over a period, to ensure continuity of local services. My officials will work on the ground with CE schemes to support them in managing this process and they will be in touch with the Skibbereen CE scheme over the coming weeks.

I will take away the Deputy's suggestion on lifelong learning exemption for the islands. I was not aware of it. I will take that back to the officials and hear what they say, however. We might need something beyond 2 July. We are, I suppose, moving in sync with the new plan and so we will review on an ongoing basis. There is a chance there may be a need for another extension.

The other issue to keep in mind is that there will also be larger cohort of long-term unemployed people who could very well benefit from CE schemes. While I understand many sponsors have many good people doing good jobs and who want to stay, there is also pressure in the other direction for many people who are and who will be distant from the labour market. We need to be conscious that they also need to be given a fair shot and a fair opportunity over time.

See this speech in context