Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 260: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the effects that budget cuts to community employment schemes are having on centres for independent living who provide a personal assistance service for persons with disability to enable them to achieve independent living; if her further attention has been drawn to the fact that centres for independent living have had to implement wage, administration and overhead cuts to offset previous reductions in funding and these present cuts will see centres having to reduce personal assistants hours, who provide a sustainable living environment for people with disabilities. [15330/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I acknowledge the valuable contribution made by Community Employment Projects such as the Centres for Independent Living (CIL) in providing a service to both participants and the community. However due to the current economic circumstances, this Department has had to find significant savings in the Budget for 2012. The reduction only applies to the grant for materials and training and represents a reduction of 7.5% of the overall expenditure on Community Employment in 2011. The allowance grants for Supervisors are unchanged, as are the working hours for staff employed under Community Employment. There will be no decrease in the number of Community Employment places allocated to CIL in 2012.

Department officials have met with representatives of CIL on a number of occasions and are very mindful of the challenges facing these centres and are very supportive within the parameters set down for Community Employment.