Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister of State will understand, I am totally and utterly unhappy with the reply because I received it in February also. I have heard about the process and the outline previously. The Minister of State should explain it to the staff whose last day of work is on Monday. There is a cost to the organisations because they have to pay staff for holidays and other costs. We are talking about community and voluntary organisations. Each organisation on the scheme deserves attention. The Minister of State has been put in an impossible situation and I am sure he would agree with me that the organisations are being put in an even more impossible situation. I ask the Minister of State to raise the matter with the Minister. I will raise it again if we do not get a satisfactory response. The reference to the "near future" means nothing to organisations given that we have raised the issue for the past year. They got a letter from the Department that said a decision would be made by the Minister by the beginning of June.