Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 647: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the actions which have been taken by his Department since 2002 to fulfil the promises in An Agreed Programme for Government to ensure that new social economy projects are effectively targeted at areas which have traditionally had a high dependence on community employment schemes and to develop the value of the social economy through the further creation of social economy enterprises. [24361/05]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The social economy programme, SEP, was launched in September 2000 with the objective of providing services to communities and employment opportunities for the unemployed. By 2003, there were 336 social economy enterprises in operation employing a total of 2,381, including projects previously operating under community employment.

A review of the social economy programme was undertaken by WRC Social and Economic Consultants. The report was published in October 2003 and is available on the websites of my Department, www.entemp.ie, and FÁS, www.fas.ie. The report stated that the main benefits of the SEP were seen as the provision of essential or needed services for disadvantaged communities and people experiencing disadvantage. It also concluded that there was a consensus that SEP was making a positive contribution in the regeneration of local communities and providing employment opportunities for people experiencing disadvantage in the labour market. It found that well over half of the SEP enterprise employees had previously participated in community employment or job initiative.

On the basis of this report the SEP was the subject of a review at partnership level in the context of the overall review of the employment schemes operated by FÁS. On foot of this I announced a number of changes to the employment schemes in November 2004, including the arrangement whereby there would be no compulsory cessation of social economy programmes. Discussions are now being held between my Department and the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs regarding the transfer of the programme to that Department.