Vol. 491 No. 3
107 Mr. Kenny asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the changes, if any, envisaged in the operation of FÁS schemes whereby a greater proportion of those who complete work on an individual scheme would be eligible to be re-employed on a subsequent scheme in the same location; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12286/98]
In principle community employment is a temporary employment scheme developed to provide unemployed people with opportunities to update skills adversely affected by prolonged unemployment, to develop some new skills and also build up a recent track record of work experience which is most important when trying to convince employers of their ability-experience. The objective is to progress CE participants into jobs in the open economy or into mainstream training if they are not job ready.
Participants are generally engaged for a 12 month period. However, a small proportion of participants may be re-engaged for further periods with the agreement of FÁS. This would be so, where such participants are key participants and no other suitable eligible person is available or where the participant would benefit from additional training-development. In particular, participants on the part-time job option, who have an annual contract of engagement for 12 months, can have their contract renewed for up to a total of three years.
Earlier this year, my Department commissioned Deloitte and Touche to carry out an evaluation of the programme in terms of meeting its objective, to consider its efficacy in the light of current and evolving labour market conditions and to make proposals to improve the programme within existing resources. That review should be completed by June of this year and its conclusions will inform future policy development in regard to community employment.
