Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

As I said, the former FÁS employment officials joined the Department on 1 January. Basically, they started work as civil servants in the Department of Social Protection last Wednesday. We are in a new era and I believe it is an era of opportunity, even though as the Senator is aware, the financial constraints are very difficult. This is an opportunity to do something very positive in regard to community employment.

As I said, there are three things in which I am particularly interested: the service being delivered, about which the Senator spoke; the quality of the experience the person participating in the scheme gets; and value for money because there is no point pretending that money is not very tight.

Community employment makes a valuable contribution. I recognise that, as does the Government which has affirmed that. It is a new era and a new Department but it would be remiss of me taking on this very large budget, this large number of people who formerly worked in FÁS - approximately 700 - and 1,100 community employment schemes not to use the opportunity to look at what community, social and public assets the Department is now taking in. It would be remiss of me, in taking on such a large budget, the approximately 700 staff who formerly worked in FÁS and 1,100 community employment schemes, not to use the opportunity to examine what community, social and public assets the Department is acquiring and how we can best use the service capacity and so forth available to us to create a good experience for those who join community employment schemes.

Since my appointment in March 2011, I have got two schemes off the ground. More than 3,500 people have joined JobBridge and more than 2,000 are participating in Tús. As a result, more than 5,000 people have obtained, in the main, good opportunities and the feedback from the schemes has been good.

As I stated, there are currently 23,000 people in community employment. My objective, given the terrible level of unemployment, is to reform the system in a manner that increases numbers and gives more people a good experience, while maintaining the vital services which, as the Senator noted, form a key element of community employment.