Vol. 428 No. 5
109 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment if his attention has been drawn to the difficulty being created for individuals who take up social employment schemes due to the shortage of people to take up the SES schemes because of the restrictive nature of the regulation.
The Social Employment Scheme is the principal manpower intervention aimed at providing opportunities for persons who are long term unemployed. The eligibility criteria for the scheme reflect this focus and projects are approved on the basis that they will provide needed opportunities for long term unemployed persons. The demand from such persons for places on the scheme exceeds the number of places available overall.
I have no plans to alter the eligibility criteria for the scheme to allow participation by persons who are not long term unemployed.
