Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

While I appreciate the answer, it is that the status quoremains. That is what I interpret from the Minister of State's response. What we are talking about here are people who either carried the hod, or were cleaners who partook in manual labour for long periods of their lives where the physical nature of their work is such that they cannot transition at a certain period of their lives into new modes or forms of employment. Frankly, the community employment scheme has delivered untold benefits to our communities. However,there is a category of people who want to continue to engage in what I would call caretaking, light duties, groundskeeping, gardening and so on, categories of work like that where we do not farm them out. If the Minister of State could look at the criteria in such a way as to make it easier for people to continue on in the workplace, albeit in a staged-back and less intensive way, there would be thousands of people who would love to qualify for such schemes and who would make an active and decent contribution to society and to their communities. Could the Minister of State review the schemes, criteria and eligibility by which they operate because we have to recognise there is a category of people here who just will not be able to continue on?

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