I welcome the Minister to the House and call on Senator Wall.
Adjournment Matter. - FÁS Special Schemes.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach
I thank the Minister for taking this matter on the Adjournment. The matter came to my attention when representations were made to me by a group called Athy Alternative, funded by the Department of Justice and FÁS. The group deals with young offenders aged from 16 to 25 years. It attempts to help those involved re-enter society and become model citizens again. A scheme was established to develop the harbour area of the Grand Canal at Athy by the provision of flower beds, landscaping, berthing docks and so on. However, it was found that those over 21 years of age were receiving a payment from FÁS while those under this age were not receiving any payment. This created a problem within the group in that it was not allowed to develop as it was first envisaged, which was the reintegration of the young unfortunates back into being responsible citizens.
The work of the scheme was a help in that the personnel involved were also learning gardening, blocklaying and so on. As it was not possible for me to get a positive answer in representations I made to the Department of Justice and FÁS, I ask the Minister that a special case be made by FÁS to ensure equal payment for all concerned in such special cases.
I thank the Senator for raising this matter. This is my first opportunity to address the House for many years and it is a pleasure to speak in the Seanad for the first time since 1986. I do not answer for the detailed operation of individual schemes and am not familiar with the details to which Senator Wall refers. They are ultimately a matter for FÁS, however, I understand the background to the cases.
Essentially, the community employment programme is confined to certain participants. To participate in a community employment scheme, a person must be of any, age and be in receipt of unemployment benefit or lone parent allowance for over one year, or be 21 years of age or over and in receipt of unemployment assistance. In addition, persons referred by the National Rehabilitation Board are also eligible. These criteria were designed to target the programme at specific categories of people who were considered to be most in need of these kinds of opportunities. In this instance there are participants on a scheme who are non-eligible and who are participating, as I understand it, on a voluntary basis, and as such would probably be qualifying for unemployment assistance alone, whereas the person on the community employment scheme would be getting the additional top up payments.
The difficulty this matter would pose to me is that I cannot alter the eligibility criteria for one instance. If I alter them, I alter them for everybody, as it is a national scheme and it applies nationally. Despite the quality and worth of the individual programme, it is not at liberty for me to intervene and say that this is a worthy programme, but every other one is not.
The rest of the reply which was prepared for me in my Department does not address the issue raised by the Senator. It describes the programme and how it works and the fact that it has a training element in it and aims to try and produce people who at the end of the programme have gained something worthwhile and who will progress to other opportunities, be they training opportunities or opportunities in the open market place.
The scheme is extremely expensive, even on the existing categories which it covers. It is costing £255 million this year, which is an increase of £75 million on last year. The Senator will be aware that even that allocation is causing acute problems as we attempt to manage a demand way in excess of what even a sum of £255 million will cater for.
While this is not a satisfactory reply to the Senator, I must stick with the eligibility criteria. It is not open to me to start identifying worthy projects where we would breach the criteria. On that basis I am not, unfortunately, on my first visit to the House, the bearer of glad tidings. However, hopefully the Senator will understand that these schemes are designed and the rules are established to target specific categories. There are other programmes specifically geared towards younger people who drop out of school without qualifications and there are, therefore, other opportunities to which this young person could perhaps be directed.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach
Thank you, Minister. I was not aware that this is your first time to attend the House as Minister, so I give you a very warm welcome. I recall another famous occasion when both of us were elected here some years ago.
The Seanad adjourned at 8.10 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 4 May 1995.