Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A few weeks ago, I met hundreds of people at the Raheen Woods Hotel, Athenry, County Galway. These were groups of people who work with Galway Rural Development under rural social schemes, Tús and community employment schemes. Many of our public representatives were also present. We know all our community heroes. They work in towns on all these schemes and doing so many projects. They work with our town teams, Tidy Towns and the GAA, as well as on sports pitches and with charities. In my local area, they were painting walls and making towns look well. These groups and the people who work in them give so much. I thank them, including Galway Rural Development, Roscommon LEADER and all the groups in all our towns.

The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, has made some serious reforms to these programmes. Throughout the country, there are 19,000 people on CE schemes, nearly 5,000 in Tús and just under 3,000 on the rural social scheme. This investment will amount to more than €500 million in 2022. What are the changes? The six-year time limit for RSS has been removed, which was one of the big asks at that last meeting. The eligibility for Tús has been extended. We are seeing much more flexibility allowing the schemes to recruit directly because it is a major challenge that so many people are back at work now. We have one of the highest levels of people who are back at work but the challenge is there is probably a smaller pool to pull from. These schemes will now be able to recruit and advertise directly for people in the local area to work with them. A new pilot scheme for qualified adults will be explored and an ex-gratia payment for CE supervisors is being looked at, which is very welcome.

This builds on changes the Minister has already made through the Department of Rural and Community Development for people who are on CE and RSS schemes. If they are aged over 60, they can stay on these schemes until retirement. These changes mean so much, especially in our local areas in Galway. The challenge is that our local authority is the second lowest funded, but it also means that so many of these groups support local authorities to develop and deliver projects. It happens in so many local authorities throughout the county. I welcome those funds today.