Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

I congratulate Senator Coghlan on bringing forward this timely and apt motion on behalf of Fine Gael. Let us talk with a degree of reality. I met with 16 supervisors in Donegal yesterday and they were not talking about cutbacks. They were talking about redundancies. That is the feeling on the ground in Donegal. These supervisors, whom we have failed to mention in the debate, have been downtrodden for the past ten years. They are on one year contracts and they are now talking about redundancies. That is a disgrace.

Senator Feighan used the word "folly". It was folly for the Government not to have given a commitment to such schemes during the past five years. Has it forgotten what they involve? Community employment schemes are not about taking people off the live register, but about giving confidence to people with low levels of self-esteem, thus empowering them to work part-time or full-time.

Senator White hit the nail on the head and, although she said her party was not part of this ideal, will be more than welcome if she wants to follow our ideals. Members on the Fianna Fáil benches should leave politics out of it, follow their consciences and vote for Senator Coghlan's motion.