I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment. It is important that a new category is introduced which would allow people with disability, those over 55 and the long-term unemployed, to remain on their community employment or FÁS schemes. Is the Minister in favour of this, especially in the light of the review of the existing criteria for FÁS schemes? FÁS is wonderful, the people who run it are magnificent and the participants are real heroes. FÁS has changed the face of Ireland in so many positive ways.
I know that FÁS numbers were cut from 40,000 to 25,000 and that they are now down to 20,000. This is because the Government felt there were so many non-nationals looking for work that the Irish workforce should be engaged from FÁS numbers. A section of FÁS participants will never be re-trained sufficiently for them to enter the general workforce. These are the groups to which I refer.
At present, under FÁS rules someone under 35 years of age can work for only one year on a scheme. In exceptional circumstances they are allowed to remain in employment for a second year. It is, however, very much the exception rather than the rule that a person would get two years. Even an individual with a chronic disability does not usually get more than a year on a FÁS scheme if they are under 35 years of age. Those over 35 years are entitled to work for three years on a FÁS scheme; after that they must finish, without exception. The aim of FÁS is to re-train people for the workforce but those over 55 years of age, those with chronic disability or those in long-term unemployment are unlikely ever to get back into the workforce.
A multiple sclerosis community employment scheme covers counties Mayo, Galway and Roscommon. It is a magnificent scheme which does wonderful work. I am glad to say this project will be renewed for a further year, but half its participants are due to be let go. All the participants suffer from multiple sclerosis, which is a lifelong illness. As they come from the most deprived rural areas, there is no alternative employment for them. I met with these people and was most impressed by them. They perform valuable work in a supported environment. The scheme allows them to earn an honest living. Cutting back this scheme will mean insufficient staffing for it, thereby bringing about an inadequate service. This will result in the failure to provide essential services to this vulnerable group of people who suffer from multiple sclerosis.
The following is an extract from an article written by an MS sufferer which appeared in the autumn 2003 copy of Health Links, a publication of the Western Health Board, which spells out the position in which such people find themselves:
I had to tell my employers about my MS and I was told I had to leave my job because their insurance would not cover me. That news really cut me up. I felt useless and depressed and could see no way out.
That is a true reflection of the dilemmas such people face.
I have talked to those people and they say that FÁS is a lifeline. The Minister can light a candle which will become a flame. It might be a small matter in the scheme of things but it means everything to them.
The seven participants who are about to be laid off are all MS sufferers who do not have any other hope of employment. How could it be justified to lay them off? According to the rules, they have to be laid off after one year if they are less than 35 years of age and after three years if they are aged over 35. The cost to the State of keeping a long-term unemployed person on a FÁS scheme is only €20 to €30 extra per week, yet people are laid off to go back on the unemployment scrap heap. This does not make sense. Some €30 per week is a small price to pay for the dignity and everything else which employment gives to these people. Why not leave them on the FÁS scheme? It is time to create a new category of scheme.
This scheme provides a lifeline to these MS sufferers whom I have met. It is a tragedy that they are being laid off because many of them were previously laid off from regular employment because of the onset of illness. As I said, employers said they would not be covered for insurance purposes. This scheme does great work, including visiting people affected with multiple sclerosis in their homes. It also operates a day club for MS sufferers which operates during the week with, on average, up to 20 participants. The scheme also organises physiotherapy for MS sufferers. The work includes bringing people from Belmullet for physiotherapy and day-trips.
Last year the scheme received support from the Western Health Board but this year no extra funding was given as it was not available. The participants had to raise €3,000. These people are heroes doing good work under the auspices of FÁS. Does the Minister of State not agree that it would be better to put the long-term unemployed, those over 55 years of age and those with chronic disability, regardless of age, in a special category so that they can be retained long-term on community employment schemes? FÁS has given these people new dignity and a purpose in life. It seems perverse that a review of the present criteria for community employment programmes should not include the making of a special category for those groups I have mentioned.
