Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 101: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of persons on CE places at 1 January 2003, 1 January 2004, 1 January 2005 and the anticipated numbers at 31 December 2005; if his attention has been drawn to the difficulties faced by many community and voluntary groups because of the shortage of community employment places; if changes are planned with regard to eligibility to participate in the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12096/05]

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 126: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he intends to extend the maximum period permitted for participating in community employment schemes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12179/05]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 139: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of persons employed in community employment schemes; his plans to extend and improve the schemes to increase participation; the other programmes and services, if any, in addition to the community employment schemes, his Department operates to help the long-term unemployed to improve their skills and rejoin the workforce; the success of these programmes, including the community employment schemes, in returning the long-term unemployed to the open labour market for the years 2002, 2003 and 2004; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12166/05]

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Question 219: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will immediately reverse the cutbacks by his Department of FÁS community employment schemes and remove the lifetime capping on participants of these schemes. [12284/05]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 101, 126, 139 and 219 together.

FÁS employment programmes, which comprise community employment, CE, social economy, SE, and job initiative, JI, will provide over 25,000 places in 2005. I am informed by FÁS that the number of participants on community employment was 24,991 in January 2003, 19,848 in January 2004 and 22,194 in January 2005. There are currently about 21,600 persons participating on community employment, 1,970 on social economy and a further 1,920 participants on job initiative.

On foot of a review of FÁS employment schemes, which included detailed consultations with the social partners, I decided that with effect from 10 November 2004 the three year cap would be removed for community employment participants aged 55 or over. This category of participants is now eligible to participate on community employment for a maximum of six years. The extension of the participation period from three to six years for over those over the age of 55 should ensure that there will be sufficient clients to fill the available places.

I should add that the continuation of ringfencing and prioritisation for the essential services of child care, health related services and drugs task force clients and the extended participation on community employment by older workers will help to secure the continuity of community services generally.

I am informed by FÁS that the rate of progression to employment for community employment participants was 41% in 2002 and 46% in 2003. An additional 7.5% of participants went on to further training or education in 2003. Job initiative participants progressed to employment at a rate of 61% in 2002 and 50% in 2003. A further 9% of job initiative participants took up further training of education courses in 2003. Progression rates for 2004 are not yet finalised. These progression rates highlight the strong contribution of community employment and job initiative programmes in assisting very disadvantaged persons to take up employment in the open labour market.

In addition to FÁS employment programmes, a range of initiatives are in place to assist the reintegration of long-term unemployed persons and disadvantaged groups into the open labour market. These include — the national employment action plan preventative process, which entails the systematic engagement and referral by the Department of Social and Family Affairs of persons six months on the live register to FÁS for interview. In the period January 2003 to December 2004, 96,000 clients have been engaged under this process. The high supports process is a flexible measure designed to assist employment services officers in implementing a range of responses for clients who are experiencing major barriers in progressing from unemployment to the workforce. A budget of up to €2,200 per person is available for this purpose. The high supports process commenced in 2003 and assisted 336 clients in that year. A further 370 clients availed of support in 2004. Gateway for women is one of the ways in which FÁS is adopting more flexible methods of delivering services to make it easier for women to return to work. It is a tailored response to individual needs and focuses on addressing concerns and difficulties experienced by women returnees such as flexibility of training and accessibility of services. At the end of 2004 approximately 2,000 women had taken part in this initiative. The pathways programme is a two-week group guidance programme for disadvantaged FÁS clients identified under the preventative process. The aim of the programme is to identify the most appropriate development pathway for each participant that will assist him or her to obtain and maintain employment. In 2004, approximately 1,000 clients attended 70 pathways programmes nationally. The range of initiatives in place are continually under review to ensure a positive outcome for participating clients.