David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton. We had a short discussion on this issue in the context of the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill last year but I tabled this matter on the Adjournment to discuss the impact of the community employment, CE, scheme cuts and specifically the impact the cut in the material and training allowance will have on a number of CE schemes in Waterford.

As the Minister is aware, there has been a 66% cut to the material and training allowance for each course participant. That has an impact on the ability of some of the schemes to deliver services. These schemes depend on this money to pay for training, insurance, rent, equipment, tools, telephone and everything other than wages. It goes towards paying for how the course operates and ensures participants get the training and education they need. It is vital that training facilitates genuine pathways from training and education in these courses into employment. The ultimate goal of CE schemes is to get people back to work. If the schemes are unable to provide the training and education people need, it will seriously curtail the ability of many course participants to get back into employment.

This cut also poses a potential threat to the ability of a number of existing schemes to continue to function. If they cannot provide the funding for insurance, rent or equipment, for example, how will they function and from where will the money come? I can offer the Minister two examples from Waterford city. One is the Saor programme which has 18 CE workers, ten in Waterford city and eight in Clonmel. It provides training, upskilling and educational opportunities to people who are recovering from substance misuse. It does a great deal of good work in the community, linking with drugs awareness and community-based drug projects. The programme's grant for each of the participants will be reduced for €1,500 to €500. The supervisors tell me it will be very hard for them to continue to provide the service this year.

The Compact community scheme in Waterford city operates from Lady Lane House. It has 19 CE workers and provides meals-on-wheels, maintenance work for people who live in sheltered housing and in housing for older people and caretaking work in the community. The scheme is sponsored by the Simon Community and Enable Ireland. The scheme will find it difficult to continue the same level of service this year if these cuts are implemented.

The Minister is aware of this issue and I accept that she has called for a review to assess the impact these cuts will have on the operation of each community employment scheme. I have given her two examples from Waterford city but I am sure she has been given other examples from throughout the country. I hope that, as with the issue of DEIS schools, we will not simply see a review but a complete reversal of the cuts. When one considers that we have massive unemployment, with 445,000 people out of work, and that it is very difficult for people to get into employment in the first place, these schemes are a bridge for many people who have no wish to be unemployed and doing nothing. They want to be able to do something and to contribute.

The Minister will also be aware of what will happen if some of these community employment schemes are unable to provide services such as caretaking, child care, meals on wheels and so forth in the community. Somebody else will have to provide them and potentially at a greater cost to the State. I contend that it makes economic sense and certainly social sense for the Minister to review and, ultimately, reverse this cut and to ensure that every community employment scheme in the country is able to continue. My party advocates that we build on the success of the community employment schemes and ensure we have a greater number of people on the schemes and greater opportunities for people who, unfortunately, because of the jobs crisis in this country, are not able to gain full-time or even part-time employment.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I am delighted Senator Cullinane raised this very important issue. Community employment schemes provide a very important and valued contribution to social employment, training and progression for unemployed people. Furthermore, many community employment schemes provide vital community services not only in Waterford but throughout the country.

Currently, there are 1,143 community employment schemes in operation nationally with 23,300 participants. The overall estimated budget stands at €315 million for 2012. In my constituency, for example, I am very familiar with the great work done by the Centre for Independent Living and by Blanchardstown community employment scheme.

As the Senator is aware, the Department of Social Protection has recently taken over full responsibility for community employment schemes as the previous FÁS employment services division joined the Department of Social Protection with effect from 1 January. I am delighted to have responsibility for these schemes which, like the Senator, I have a lot of personal experience of and which play such an important role in our communities, in particular by providing services which have of intrinsic social value like helping the disabled to live independently, like the example used by the Senator of Compact in Waterford city and like delivering meals on wheels, in particular to our older citizens.

This point that tends to get lost in some of the purely economic analysis of community employment schemes which views them as not delivering sufficient progression into the labour market. While it is true that many community employment schemes need to improve the manner in which they provide labour activation services, there will always be a role for schemes that are primarily directed towards the provision of crucial social services, often for disadvantaged communities which are in dire need of services like child care, elderly care and drug treatment programmes. The intrinsic social value of these schemes is not captured by conventional economic models but this is more a failing of conventional economics than of the schemes themselves. The IMF should please take note.

As Minister for Social Protection, I am determined to ensure that the contribution of such schemes is recognised in any future decisions on the future operation, funding and role of community employment. Given that this area was coming over to the Department of Social Protection for the first time, I asked for an initial review of the financial resources of all schemes to be completed in March 2012. As I said, there is a total spend on this area of €315 million. Standard templates have been developed and issued to the employment officers involved. These are the former FÁS staff who are now employment officers and civil servants in my Department. The review will be carried out between local community employment sponsors and the departmental employment officer responsible for the scheme under local management.

The discussion that will be undertaken with schemes will be conducted in a constructive manner and all support possible will be provided to help the schemes to remain viable. As I speak, employment officers are making initial contact with schemes. In addition to these local discussions, discussion and consultation with the main representative bodies and stakeholders involved in schemes will take place over the coming weeks in regard to funding.

Separately the former FÁS research unit has been asked to complete a strategic value for money review of a number of schemes administered by the Department. Community employment will be reviewed as part of this exercise. The outcome of this review will guide future policy development and is also expected to be completed by the end of March.

I am also planning a stakeholder consultation event so that I can better understand the role that community employment schemes play throughout the country and obtain the views and feedback of scheme sponsors, supervisors and participants.

The outcome of these reviews will inform the overall approach to be taken by my Department in regard to how to secure the best outcomes for the schemes and for their participants, taking account of the large amount of money we spend on community employment schemes and the valuable contribution that many of them make to their communities.

The purpose of the reviews is to examine the income and funding of sponsoring organisations in terms of their ability to continue deliver the programme. It is also being carried out in the context that there are community and voluntary sponsoring organisations that receive funding from a multiplicity of State agencies. Alternative sources of support will be examined, particularly with reference to funding from other State agencies to avoid duplication. The review will also seek to establish if income is generated by scheme activity and the potential for utilisation of these funds to cover project costs.

This is a listening Government and I have been listening carefully to the concerns raised by the community and voluntary sector about the impact that changes to the training and material grant could have on community employment schemes pending the outcome of the review. Following on from changes to the training and materials grant for community employment schemes announced in budget 2012, I made a commitment that no community employment scheme would close pending the completion of this review.

Let me be very clear about this. In the event that the changes in the training and material grant announced in the budget create financial difficulties for schemes, my Department will continue to provide funding for those schemes. In this context, I want to confirm that the funding is available in my Department to make this commitment a reality.

I would like to stress also that community employment participants can continue to avail of education and training programmes that are available to them free of charge from existing State-funded providers. This facility will also form part of the arrangements that will be developed as part of the establishment of SOLAS under the Department of Education and Skills. It was formerly the education and training wing of FÁS, which is now gone.

David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the stakeholder consultation review and the fact the sponsors, participants and supervisors will form part of it. I also welcome the commitment that no scheme will close but there is a fear that some schemes may have to curtail their services. I am not all that hung up on where the money comes from to ensure schemes can operate, whether support from the Minister's Department or through the grant which courses were getting for each participant, but I want to ensure that those schemes which are in operation and provide the services, about which the Minister and I spoke, continue in communities. I hope the outcome of the review, about which the Minister spoke, will lend itself to that and we will see not only continued but improved services from community employment schemes in this State.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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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.