I thank the Minister of State for coming in to reply.
Adjournment Debate. - Community Employment.
The Deputy's favourite Minister.
Yes. We are here to talk about community employment, not about the banks — that will be for tomorrow. When tabling various questions to the Minister for Enterprise and Employment in recent weeks I received stern letters from the office of the Ceann Comhairle stating that the Minister said he had no responsibility to speak to the Dáil on FAS matters. I found that extraordinary. I checked the Official Report and found that Deputy Ruairí Quinn and I, on every occasion, replied to Adjournment debates and questions on FÁS matters. Finally, the Minister for Enterprise and Employment agreed and the Minister of State has come in his stead to reply. That is fine by me, although on one occasion the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, commented upon my prowess and thought that two of me would equal one Minister. As he is a three-quarters Minister I will excuse him.
I never said a word.
The Minister of State has been struck dumb since he went into office.
Let us not make it personal, please.
We are here to discuss a very serious matter, community employment. I know that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is exercised by this issue. I recall standing in for Deputy Bertie Ahern, then Minister for Labour, on many occasions when Deputy Rabbitte had numerous questions on the Adjournment seeking the prolongation of social employment schemes, the commencement of the new SES, the additional numbers on SES or more funds for an SES.
I have had calls from community groups all over the country complaining that they cannot take on or replace personnel on community employment programmes. I understand the embargo will be in place until at least June, possibly September, and that community employment sponsors are being told tidy towns applications will be dealt with in September. To tell tidy towns committees that their projects will be given the go-ahead in the month of September is comical in the extreme.
The Minister will be aware that throughout the country last weekend there were many anxious sponsors who had their proposals ready and many workers had hoped to gain admission to community employment projects. The cutbacks have hit in several ways. At the end of 1994 there were 41,900 people on community employment projects. I never heard such a pathetic, fumbling excuse as the one put forward yesterday by the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, in regard to the estimates for community employment. He said it was Fianna Fáil's fault that there was no extra funding for the community employment programme. I wish to remind the Minister for Enterprise and Employment that the estimates were produced by him and, in many cases, were different from those produced by the minority Fianna Fáil Government. While the Minister increased the funding in the budget following dire warnings from me, the reality is that 7,500 people will either drop out of the community employment programme or fail to get places this year.
The Minister is interested in projects in his community. Community groups have written asking if I will give the go-ahead to their projects. I have to gently remind them that I cannot give the go-ahead to anything and that all I can do is raise the matter on their behalf. I am talking about tourism groups, cultural groups, social groups caring for the disadvantaged, people in education, infrastructural projects, tidy towns projects and museum projects.
The country is being kept going by FÁS, the people working on these projects and the failure to provide adequate resources raises serious doubts about the Government's commitment to take action on the long-term unemployed. The Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Eithne Fitzgerald, have been dodging the issue for weeks by claiming that they have no responsibility for community enterprise programmes run by FÁS. They can no longer try to avoid this problem and must face the music, so to speak. This year 7,500 people will be unable to gain entry to community employment as a result of inactivity in this area by the Government.
I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and refer her to the formal reply in the Dáil on Thursday, 9 March. The position regarding community employment in 1995 is that the Government is providing total funding of £255.75 million, an increase from £186 million in 1994.
And down 7,500 places.
Let us hear the Minister's reply without interruption. Time is precious.
The reply indicated that this level of funding would provide an average participation level of 38,500 on the programme during the year with an end-year participation level of 35,000. This average level of participation compares favourably with the 1994 average participation level of 30,960.
What did we end up with?
As pointed out in the written reply to which I referred, the level of participation at the end of 1994 was 40,000. As the Deputy is aware, the numbers had increased further to 41,993 by the beginning of March. If we are to survive within the increased allocation of £255.75 million, participation cannot be greater than 35,000 at the end of the year. The previous Administration had provided for expenditure of £232.3 million only for the programme in 1995. I want to be very clear on the background to the funding requirements this year.
When the Government took office it was completely dismayed at what the Fianna Fáil caretaker Government had set aside for the community employment programme.
Why did it not put it right?
The Fianna Fáil estimate would have completely decimated the community employment programme——
The Government was able to pull money out of the hat.
Please, Deputy.
The Fianna Fáil provision would have meant that 26,000 people only would have been on the community employment programme later this year.
This Government produced the estimate.
The Deputy had a very good hearing and she should grant the same courtesy to the Minister.
This would have represented a reduction of 16,000 places by the end of 1995. We immediately recognised that this was completely inadequate and increased the financial allocation and numbers participating. In the short time available to us and in the light of the strict criteria we apply to public expenditure, we increased the budget to £255.75 million.
What about the round towers?
I am delighted to inform the Deputy——
Fairly tales and leprechauns.
Crocks of gold.
The Minister without interruption, please.
I am very happy to say that round towers have been looked after.
I bet they have.
I have attended to this matter personally. FÁS has been requested to manage the reduction to the end-year level of 35,000 as sensitively as possible and guidelines have been drawn up to assist local FÁS offices in managing the programme within available resources.
The guidelines propose the amalgamation of smaller projects, the staggering of start-up dates for both projects and participants and small reductions in participation levels in projects generally. I am aware that any delay in participation is a source of great disappointment to individuals, local communities and groups hoping to participate in the programme. Nonetheless the provision of opportunities on the programme for an average of 38,500 persons during 1995 is evidence of the Government's commitment to the provision of opportunties for the long-term unemployed.
In the context of the increased funding available this year, the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Deputy Richard Bruton, is engaged in discussions with FÁS on how to ensure the better management of the community enterprise programme so that maximum value and impact is gained therefrom. FÁS recently undertook an analysis of the operation of the community employment programme in 1994. This indicates that of the 3,500 sponsors of projects, 44 per cent were involved in community social projects, environmental projects represented 32 per cent and projects in the tourism, education, arts, culture and sport areas represented the balance. In terms of participants, 57 cent were between 25 and 44 years of age, 26 per cent were over 45 years of age, just over 50 per cent had dependants and the level of female participation increased to 32 per cent from approximately 20 per cent the previous year.
We took the decision on what to do.
And I fully supported it. The Government is fully committed to the provision of programmes to tackle the serious issue of long-term unemployment. In addition to the funding of £255.75 million provided for the community enterprise programme, a sum of £6 million has been set aside for the establishment of the local employment service being set up on a pilot basis in 14 areas. This service will bring all the relevant agencies together at local level so as to ensure that their resources and competencies are co-ordinated in a manner tailored to the individual needs of the long-term unemployed person, the ultimate objective being to secure their reintegration into the labour market. The Task Force on Long-Term Unemployment is continuing its work and will report in the autumn on further targeted measures to tackle long-term unemployment.
The Minister provides comic relief. Where is his red nose?