Vol. 456 No. 6
40 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the plans, if any, he has to review the community employment schemes in order to determine if any positions can be made into long term jobs in view of the fact that many schools that need secretaries are currently depending on community employment schemes. [14467/95]
Community employment is primarily aimed at assisting the long term unemployed progress to mainstream employment by way of providing temporary work experience of 12 months duration. Qualitative improvements in the form of development or training modules have been added to the work experience element so as to assist in the process of re-integration into the labour market or to facilitate progression onto higher skills acquisition levels. The programme itself does not generate permanent employment although it can be the case that such employment can emerge from specific projects. It is also the case that there is provision for participants to be engaged for further periods where such participants would benefit from additional work experience-training or where participants have a key role to play in the project and no other suitable eligible participant is available. In addition FÁS has been asked to make a special effort to facilitate those over 45 years with a place on the programme for up to three years as it is recognised that this category have greater difficulty than others in obtaining mainstream employment.
While the availability of mainstream employment posts as school secretaries is a matter for the Minister for Education, I am pleased to inform the House that the task force on unemployment, as part of its second report, is currently examining the existing employment options, including how community employment can be further strengthened in order to enhance participants' employment prospects.
