asked the Minister for Labour the number of people employed on the social employment scheme on 1 September 1986 and on 1 September, 1987; if his attention has been drawn to the difficulties that county councils and community groups have in getting people to work on the social employment schemes; and the plans, if any, he has to change the terms of the scheme.
Written Answers. - Social Employment Scheme.
19.
There were 10,975 participants on the social employment scheme week ending 29 August 1986 and 7,361 participants on the scheme week ending 28 August 1987. At the moment there are about 9,500 people on the scheme.
While in some individual cases there may have been difficulties in finding persons to work on particular projects in particular areas, it is not, I believe, a general problem. I would point out for the Deputy's information that there are more than 100,000 persons eligible for the 10,000 or so places provided annually under the scheme.
If the Deputy has particular cases in mind I will have these looked into. There are no plans at present to change the terms of the scheme.