63 Mr. Callanan asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the number of places on the rural social scheme that have been filled in the Galway Rural Development Company’s operational area; the main types of projects that they have been working on; and if he will increase the number of places on the rural social scheme. [42639/06]

There are currently 170 participants employed in the 9 Rural Social Scheme (RSS) projects in the Galway Rural Development Company's operational area. The participants are working on the following types of projects:

Maintenance and enhancement of waymarked ways, agreed walks, bog roads etc;

Village and countryside enhancement projects;

Social care and care of the elderly, community after school groups and community pre-school groups;

Projects relating to not for profit cultural and heritage centres;

Environmental maintenance work — maintenance and caretaking of community and sporting facilities; and

Other community based projects.

At present, there are 2,593 participants on the RSS from the overall number of 2,600 currently available and the remaining places are expected to be filled in early 2007. The number of places available under the Scheme is being kept under on-going review by my Department.

Details of the nine projects, the number of participants and the areas served are detailed in the following table.