I thank the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Tom Kitt, for coming into the House to discuss an important issue for many people with disabilities who are less fortunate than able bodied people.
I am sure the Minister of State is familiar with the regulations dealing with community employment schemes, particularly the regulation which states that after three years on the scheme a participant is obliged to leave it. When community employment schemes were established and this regulation was brought into force the intention was that suitable training would be provided to ensure that participants could return to the workforce. Community employment schemes have been successful, but because we are close to full employment there are not as many participants as there were in the past.
Many hundreds of people are affected by this issue but one case which came to my attention recently was that of personal assistants to persons with disabilities who are employed on community employment schemes. They have an important job and they have the benefit of substantial training. They develop an excellent one-to-one relationship with the person for whom they are caring.
A person has participated as a personal assistant for the last three years. He is 63 years of age, enjoys what he does and has a good working relationship with the person who has the disability. Unfortunately, because of the regulations he will be obliged to come off the scheme from the end of this month. I call on the Minister to relax the regulations to ensure that people doing this work have the benefit of additional training, whether it be in physiotherapy or in other caring areas.
It is a shame that a person so well qualified who has developed a good relationship with a person with disability should have to come off the scheme. It is a huge loss to the person with a disability and a huge disappointment to the person doing the work as a personal assistant who finds the work most rewarding. It would, therefore, be very beneficial if the rules were relaxed.
If the person has to come off the scheme, then the person with disability and FÁS must find another suitable person through the community employment programme. That person must then develop the same one-to-one relationship and undergo the same training. We are wasting the resources of the State in this way. If and when these people must come off this scheme perhaps the health boards and health services would consider favourably employing them as carers, because they have acquired the necessary training skills over a three year period.
This issue has wider implications. Other issues could be considered through the community employment schemes. I look forward to the Minister's response.
Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Mr. T. Kitt): I thank the Senator for raising this important matter. I share his particular interest in it. Following Government approval in 1999, the community employment programme is being restructured to take account of falling unemployment levels and to better target available places at older long-term unemployment persons. As part of this process and in consultation with the social partners, a decision was taken to reduce gradually the numbers employed on community employment programme from an average of 37,500 in 1999 to 28,000 by 2003. The Government's restructuring decision also included, among other measures, a new three year limit on participation in the community employment programme, except in the case of island residents, to discourage repeated participation on the programme.
The restructuring of the community employment programme is part of an overall shift in strategic policy in favour of greater investment in training places, especially for persons under the age of 25 years and the long-term unemployed. In this context it is necessary for FÁS, as the operation agency for the programme, to prioritise projects according to need. FÁS currently gives priority to caring and support projects based in the community and voluntary sector, including services for persons with disabilities.
The restructuring of the community employment programme also involved the proposed mainstreaming of certain essential services, including services for disabled persons. Mainstreaming in the context of the community employment programme is the term used to describe the proposed transfer of funding and the provision of services to the relevant mainline Department with direct responsibility for the area concerned. My Department is giving active consideration in the first instance to the mainstreaming of community employment programme services to schools in regard to school secretaries, caretakers, classroom assistants and to persons with disabilities with regard to personal assistance.
It is intended that the PPF standing committee, which operates under the aegis of my Department, will discuss the outcome of these discussions on the labour market with the social partners. According to an audit of the community employment programme essential services undertaken by FÁS in November 1999, 1,822 programme participants were engaged in personal assistant services at a cost of approximately £14.5 million. A more recent audit of these services undertaken in September 2000 indicates that there are currently 1,900 participants on programme schemes providing these services at a cost of approximately £15 million. To ensure that the services provided under the programme to persons with disabilities are not adversely affected by the restructuring, these services are currently classified as a priority by FÁS and are, therefore, protected from the phased reduction which has been imposed on other categories of projects, such as in the environment and education sectors.
The Senator will appreciate that the short-term nature of participation in the community employment programme, three years now being the maximum term, is not compatible with the needs of persons with disability, where personal bonds of sensitivity and flexibility are essential. The proposed mainstreaming would, therefore, have positive implications for the provision of these services in the future in terms of creating more permanent funding conditions for their delivery. The Department of Health and Children, which has primary responsibility for funding in this area, is supportive of the proposal in principle and the two Departments, in consultation with FÁS, are now looking at the modalities involved. I hope these discussions can be completed as soon as possible, enabling the proposed new funding arrangements to be put in place by the Department of Health and Children at an early date.
The new national support employment programme for persons with disabilities, as announced by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, last July has now commenced and is being administered by FÁS. The object of the programme is to integrate people with disabilities into paid employment in the open labour market and to provide them with the support required to achieve their integration into the workplace. Emphasis will be on matching people's ability to suitable jobs in the labour market. Under the programme a job coach will be assigned to the disabled person to find a suitable job with a local employer and to provide ongoing support to both the employer and the employee as necessary. It is intended that this support will gradually decrease as the employed become more confident in the workplace.
Other supports to employers also available for FÁS will include disability awareness training grants for the workforce, grants for the retraining of employees who acquire a disability during their working lives and workplace adaptation grants. The support employment programme and the new grants, which will be available shortly, will be accessible through FÁS. FÁS has invited applications for funding under the programme from organisations already working to integrate people with disabilities into open employment.
The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and I, as Minister of State with responsibility for labour affairs, are both very concerned to make progress on this important issue. I am confident this package of new measures will lead to a substantial improvement in services for people with disabilities.