With due respects to the Deputy, he is falling into the false intellectual trap set by the consultants when they measured the success of schemes by the subsequent participation of trainees in the labour market. If one starts with that analysis as the criteria of success inevitably one arrives at the results the consultants got. The matter was highlighted in the media but, I hasten to add, not by the Deputy.
The schemes were evaluated in the first instance by the contribution they made to the stock of wealth in local communities. Members will be well aware of the marvellous work that has been done for communities using community resources. That does not figure in the consultants' study. Many individuals, having had the opportunity to participate in work, in some cases having been unemployed for three years or more, have benefited and in some cases, but not in the number required, have succeeded in finding work of a satisfactory kind.
I agree with the Deputy that what is lacking in SES and to a lesser extent in the CEDP is a good and significant training element. We are in the process of developing the training element in the community employment scheme. I would not for one moment say we have the design of the training element right. We will monitor its effectiveness throughout the year and, in particular, we will see if it provides what the European Commission, the Government and the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed want, a path of progression to enable people at the end of a year or two to identify what they want to do. In some cases that may involve participating in a further full-time course which will lead to enhanced employment prospects. A training module is being designed. This morning in my constituency I launched a training manual for such participants. It is recognised by everybody that we are developing. We are among the most advanced in the European Union in this area of third sector employment.