Fears grow for work scheme
There is speculation among those with direct involvement in the community employment scheme that Enterprise Minister Mary Harney will announce the number of places is to be cut from 24,000 to just 12,500. In May, the Tánaiste announced a cut from 28,000.
An official in Ms Harney’s department last night said speculation over the scheme was premature as no decision had been made on the spending estimates for next year. A report on the scheme is set to be completed within the next couple of weeks. It is understood its authors will recommend cuts but will leave the number up to the government.
The scheme was set up to create State-supported jobs for the long-term unemployed but as the economy improved there was a gradual reduction in the number of places from a high of 41,000. Many of those who got jobs under the scheme were transferred in to the main stream, to sectors such as health and education.
But it is now so embedded in some communities that a range of vital services are provided on the back of the scheme and they will only survive, its supporters argue, if reductions in places are counterbalanced by alternative funding from government.
Fr Sean Healy, CORI’s justice spokesman, said: “It’s critically important the government provide new budget funding to ensure the organisations can continue providing the services under community employment.
“These services are important in local communities and should be funded even if there was no unemployment in Ireland.”
Fr Healy, who is to be interviewed by the report’s authors on Friday, said the scheme’s purpose was to provide work experience and education.
But he added: “It makes funding available to organisations providing services, for example meals and wheels, and it provides sheltered employment for people who would not be in a position to gain employment in the market economy for whatever reason.”
Eric Conroy, general secretary of the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed, confirmed the Indecon report into the scheme is almost complete.
Mr Conroy is on the committee that will review the report within the next couple of weeks.
He said a leaked FÁS report suggested the number of places would be cut by 10,000 but the latest information from inside the organisation is that even more places will be slashed.
“If there is to be a cut, the savings should be released to fund training and education,” said Mr Conroy.
