Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for selecting this matter. I appreciate the Minister of State being here to respond to the debate. For the record, I submitted the matter for the attention of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. I appreciate that the Government appears to operate on a silo basis. As a result of the problems that that gives rise to, we have a situation where after a very protracted and sometimes acrimonious issue with community employment, CE, supervisors who resorted to the intervention of the Labour Court, ultimately, a settlement was reached in respect of a financial arrangement on the retirement of CE supervisors, which is most welcome. What I am really asking for, in the context of this debate, is that Government joins the dots. There is no difference on the ground, in all practical reality, between the work that CE supervisors, Tús supervisors and rural social scheme supervisors do. I am sure the Minister of State will appreciate that. There is not a community in urban or rural Ireland that is not benefiting significantly from these interventions. I fail to see why we insist on differentiating between the arrangements for CE supervisors and Tús and rural social scheme supervisors when they retire. That is the problem. Ultimately, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform controls the purse strings. I appreciate that the Department of Social Protection is hands-on in terms of the day-to-day administration of these issues. However, as I said at the outset, we need to join the dots here. Otherwise, we will be dragged, kicking and screaming, to a resolution of this issue. It would be better to resolve the issue without resorting to that form of acrimony, that level of unnecessary engagement and a repetition of visitations to the Labour Court, which I am absolutely certain, because the circumstances are entirely the same, would result in the same judgment.

I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could consider the matter in detail. The amounts of money in the context of the overall budget of the Department are very small. As I said, there is no difference, in practice, between the work these people do in rural social schemes, Tús and CE schemes. It is the logical thing to do. I regret that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has done everything to duck, weave and avoid addressing this issue. I have attempted to submit several parliamentary questions on the issue to that Department on the basis that it ultimately controls the purse strings. I suspect the Minister may well tell me that notwithstanding his good intentions and wish to resolve this issue, he cannot do so. That is why I appeal to Government collectively to address this issue and join the dots. It will be solved and the dots will be connected, ultimately. Let us do it before we are dragged, kicking and screaming to do it.

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