Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire go dtí an tSeanaid. Tá mé thar a bheith buíoch as an t-am a thógáil, mar tuigim go maith go bhfuil sí an-chruógach na laethanta seo. Tá fáilte faoi leith roimh na cuairteoirí óga sa Ghailearaí go dtí an tSeanaid tráthnóna. I welcome the Minister and thank her for taking the time out of her busy schedule to talk about an important issue relating to community employment, CE, schemes, which has come to light in recent weeks. My Sinn Féin colleague, Senator David Cullinane, highlighted what he feels is a jobs crisis. We are certainly in dire straits with regard to job creation. I appreciate that the Minister is looking at this as a matter of urgency.

It has come to our attention that in recent weeks a directive has been given by one of the regional departments in FÁS that the leniency of allowing an extra year on a FÁS scheme has been curtailed, that the three year rule is to be implemented very strictly and that people will not be given a fourth year or extra time on a local CE scheme.

A number of questions arise from the directive. It is not logical when we are in a national jobs crisis. The FÁS website describes the community employment scheme as an employment and training programme that helps long-term unemployed people to re-enter the active workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to a work routine. This is all fine and dandy if one has a job to return to. At present, there is a huge difficulty for people who are leaving CE schemes in finding employment.

In most areas, people who have been on CE schemes and who are doing extremely important work in their communities are being displaced by other people who are already on the live register. There is a revolving door scenario, where people on FÁS courses, who have been trained and are doing fantastic work, are being replaced by others who are on the dole. It does not make sense. The communities I talk to in Connemara and Galway are disappointed by the lack of leniency where there was leniency previously.

Did the directive originate at Government level, particularly from the Minister's Department, or did it originate within FÁS? What is the thinking behind it? There is no benefit in people leaving CE schemes if they are unable to find gainful employment and are put back on the dole. One of the benefits of CE schemes is that participants work with other people, are trained and improve their skills. Leaving people languishing on the dole is not a positive option when the cost of keeping them on CE schemes might not be much more.

It is possible the related cost of mental health issues which would ensue from not having them on those CE schemes would be more than the amount we are saving by putting them back on the dole.

I ask the Minister to consider the Sinn Féin proposal of creating 10,000 new places on FÁS CE schemes because, as the Minister said, the jobs initiative is being rolled out at present but those jobs have not yet materialised. In the interim, there are over 430,000 people on the live register. This would be a fantastic opportunity to get those people doing meaningful work in their communities. The cost of having them on a CE scheme as opposed to being on the dole would be much more beneficial in an economic, social and every other sense.

I draw attention to the plight of self-employed people who do not qualify for the dole, including those who had been labourers, electricians, plasterers, fishermen, farmers and so on. At this stage, they are not counted on the live register and are not entitled to unemployment payments despite being unemployed. We feel something needs to be done to try to help these people out of this difficult situation and to help train them. We plead with the Minister to address this as a matter of priority because such people seem to be the forgotten unemployed in our country at present.

The Minister might give us an insight as to what is happening in regard to the restructuring of FÁS and the future of community employment within the new structure of the national employment and entitlements service. When and how will this happen and will it have an effect on the CE schemes to which I referred?

I am not sure if the Minister is aware of the work done over the years by Pobal in the area of disadvantage. Mr. Trutz Haase has done much work on economic indicators and the deprivation index which shows that many rural and peripheral areas are at a much higher level of socioeconomic disadvantage. For example, to take the Connemara Gaeltacht, the further west one goes, the lower the level of education and the higher the proportion of people dependent on State income such as a FÁS course or State-funded employment. Therefore, there is a cycle of deprivation that has continued even though Pobal has been putting money into schemes for the last 20 years to try to reverse this. The gap between rich and poor, and between those who are deprived and those who are not, has not lessened but has widened a little.

In peripheral areas such as west Donegal and west Mayo, as well as possibly in some urban areas where there is a huge level of deprivation, will FÁS bring back that level of leniency in regard to CE schemes so those people would be allowed by the Minister to have that extra fourth or fifth year on the schemes? It is much more difficult for people in such areas to find gainful employment and I ask that they would be given a special dispensation and some leniency to try to help them through these difficult years, to keep those communities alive, to allow people to train and upskill and to keep them in gainful employment as well as doing much of the work that is needed in the community. Another element affecting communities in the west is that many of those who are able to work are emigrating, so we are losing many of the younger people who would do much of that voluntary work in those areas. It is a very small thing which would make a huge difference to us and our communities.

I welcome the Minister's comments on the TÚS programme and we hope it will roll out well under Údarás na Gaeltachta. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. Tá mé thar a bheith buíoch di as an t-am a thógáil agus tá súil agam go mbeidh sí ábalta na smaointe seo a thógáil ar bord.