Vol. 510 No. 3
109 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the range of sponsors, supervisors and participants consulted by a company (details supplied) in its review of the community employment scheme which resulted in its report of October 1998; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22595/99]
The information requested by the Deputy is contained in the appendices to the Deloitte & Touche report on the community employment programme published in October 1998. The first three appendices give a profile of the participants, supervisors and sponsors surveyed by the consultants. In addition to consultations with primary stakeholders, the opinions of FÁS, Department of Finance, other interest groups and my Department were also considered by Deloitte & Touche before finalising the report.
The participants surveyed are outlined in Appendix I. This survey is based on 218 respondents. Their age, education, the region they are from, the type of project they are involved in and their opinions of the programme are set out in detail in this appendix. Appendix II gives an outline of the supervisors surveyed. Details are supplied under the main headings: Personal Details, Project Information, CE Programme and Supervisors' Development Programme. The survey is based on 100 supervisors from the ten FÁS regions. The sponsors surveyed are included in Appendix III under the headings: project information and CE Programme.
110 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the plans, if any, she has to meet or consult with community employment supervisors on their future status in view of the proposed phasing out of scheme numbers over the next five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22596/99]
Following the restructuring of the community employment programme last July, there were requests from ICTU and the INOU for clarification of the Government decision. In this regard I met with ICTU at the end of September and IMPACT, the union representing the majority of supervisors, was present. During this meeting the difficulties faced by supervisors due to the scaling down of the number of participants on the CE programme were raised by the IMPACT representative. Following on from this meeting Department officials met IMPACT and supervisor representatives with a view to establishing the full extent of the concerns being raised by the supervisors. A further meeting is scheduled to take place this month between the IMPACT representative, FÁS and departmental officials with a view to progressing the matter further.
