Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Going on that, perhaps a broadening of that reduction from 12 to nine months beyond just those from our new communities could be looked at later in the year or even after the summer because, at the end of the day, there is a very high number of vacancies. The Minister of State will have been told the same thing I have been, which is that projects are not getting referrals and are struggling to fill places, which is putting really important community services on the line in an awful lot of areas where those services would simply not exist without CE schemes. Scheme supervisors in particular are being put under great pressure. They are not getting referrals from the Department. That needs to be looked at. It has been an issue for a very long time. Schemes are not getting people through and not filling their places. Alarm bells should be ringing when there are 3,600 vacancies and that number is increasing. A very close eye needs to be kept on that. As I have said, I welcome the changes that have been announced. I believe they will make a difference but they need to go further.

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