Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

As I indicated, some additional funding is being made available in regard to materials and training. Its allocation will depend on the applications made by schemes. This will be communicated by regional managers. Some schemes submitted applications referencing figures below €500 and other schemes submitted applications referencing figures above €1,000. They can apply to the regional manager initially and if they are still unhappy with the outcome, they can apply to the assistant secretary in charge of the schemes overall. Clearly, they will have to justify any application they make and show they have made savings.

One of the interesting points to emerge from the review is that many schemes were incurring heavy administration costs because there are so many companies, particularly in respect of insurance and auditing. We have changed the arrangements to make it possible to make savings. As I stated, some schemes have already entered legal commitments, and in some cases schemes are committed to quite expensive rents. We will be asking schemes to seek to re-negotiate with landlords. Savings may not be possible for some this year but it may be possible to enter the negotiation process now.

I hope we will have good outcomes. We are involved in discussions with the prototype SOLAS on the provision of training. With certain types of programmes, particularly ring-fenced ones such as those pertaining to drugs and child care, the training, education and qualifications offered are very important. We hope to improve the qualification people can obtain from such schemes. I have had an opportunity over the past few months to visit schemes around the country and meet groups of supervisors and directors of scheme sponsorship companies. I have enjoyed this very much and I was very impressed by the work taking place. We have retained all the places and supervisors. Under the current structure, there are schemes that last for one year, two years and three years. For certain categories of individual, it may be possible to extend the given period. In this regard, the position remains as it was.