Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, congratulate Senator Kyne on his new role. I raise the issue of CE schemes. As we know, they serve an important function in our communities. There is normally a sponsor behind these CE schemes which tends to be a local community organisation. The funding of those employed by CE schemes comes entirely through the Department of Social Protection. Funding for wages, PRSI and everything else comes entirely through the Department of Social Protection. In a sense, all that side of it is looked after by the Department of Social Protection. Unfortunately, I recently became aware that when a CE scheme is wound up or there is a reason a sponsor decides not to continue with it and it comes to making a supervisor redundant, for example, the Department of Social Protection does not want to know.It has stated that it is the responsibility of the sponsor. In this case I am aware of somebody involved as a supervisor for 31 years. She has been informed that an application will have to be made through the redundancy insolvency fund with the hope of being able to fund her redundancy. I am quite certain, and I made inquiries about this, that most CE schemes are not aware of this. If a CE scheme decides to wind up for a particular reason, redundancy payments will not be made by the Department of Social Protection. While the sponsor is seen as the employer for all intents and purposes, and the Department makes most of the payments, when it comes to redundancy there is a problem. Will the Leader raise this with the Minister for Social Protection on my behalf so that we might have a debate on community employment schemes?