I wish to raise the issue of community employment schemes. These schemes may not be as controversial as the introduction of broadband to rural Ireland, but they are equally important to the communities they serve. As we approach full employment, I ask the Government and the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to change the eligibility criteria for entry to community employment schemes. I ask that the rules be relaxed in respect of the duration for which people can remain on these schemes, with particular regard to people aged over 55, participants with social and other limitations and participants who lack transport and other supports. I ask the Government to introduce some flexibility regarding the maximum amount of time for which participants can remain on these schemes. This would enable schemes to maintain their staffing levels, as many are now having difficulty doing so. It would allow them to continue with the excellent work they do for their local communities and to play an important part in social inclusion, particularly in rural Ireland.

The Minister has set up an interdepartmental group to look at this issue, which was to report at the end of March. Did this group produce such a report and what were its recommendations, particularly with respect to altering the criteria for entry and length of stay on these schemes?

Is the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection the best Department to be involved in the social inclusion arm of this scheme? As we approach full employment, the emphasis should be on community enhancement and social protection. The schemes were introduced at a time when there were high levels of unemployment but that is no longer the case, which creates great difficulties for these schemes in recruiting and maintaining people on the schemes. This is detrimental to the communities they serve. The Minister is aware of the social inclusion value of these schemes. The rules were set out at a different time and in a different era and they need to be changed.

The schemes are critically important for communities because they have taken on the work county councils formerly carried out in maintaining the infrastructure of villages and towns, providing many services formerly provided by the county council, looking after community projects and sheltered housing schemes, and looking after the landscape and streetscape of these towns and villages through their participation in Tidy Towns and other community projects.

Even with almost full employment, there will always be a small cohort of people who find the norms of conventional jobs challenging. A placement on a community employment scheme gives these people a great sense of purpose, allows them to contribute to their communities, gives them sheltered and protected work and allows them to achieve their full potential.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. If I am not mistaken, these schemes were introduced by Ruairí Quinn during the early part of my time in this House. Their value and importance has been immense. There is no doubt that they have been primarily seen as labour market interventions to activate and keep people close to the labour market at times of high unemployment. The Minister is right to have established an interdepartmental group to look at the future role of the schemes.

Clearly, it changes as the labour market changes. They have played an invaluable role. I am very aware of the pressures the Deputy describes in rural communities because there is equal pressure on maintaining community employment schemes in urban areas. The interdepartmental group was only established by the Minister in March. It has had its first meetings but has not reported at this point. It will examine the full range of issues as to the role of this. There will no doubt continue to be an important role in labour market activation. People can get displaced and do need a period of employment experience of the sort that can be provided by community employment schemes but there is an acknowledgement that there are also longer term elements. The purpose of this evaluation is to find the correct balance between them. I would tender a view that the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is the correct Department to do this work but of course it has to work very closely with the Department of the Minister, Deputy Ring, where there are community, rural and urban affairs to be developed. I hope the interdepartmental group can develop something that is truly valuable to the communities and to the individuals who take these placements up. It has a very strong record of performance and has delivered some immensely valuable work within our communities. The Government wants to ensure it can continue to contribute to and support communities in the way the Deputy rightly identifies as being of priority.

There needs to be a distinction between employment reactivation and social inclusion. The problem that arises in rural Ireland is that there are many groups who for various reasons cannot engage in full-time employment. They may not be able to participate in the training schemes that are sponsored by the employment schemes. The issue really is how we develop the self-esteem of people who are on schemes and then have to leave the schemes, although we know in our heart and soul they are not going to be able to get full-time employment. That may be for many reasons, either age or some limitation in their social skills or mental health. Being involved in a scheme allows these people to become part of the community, to contribute to it and to be a valuable member of it. Rather than be passive within the community, it allows them to be active. Once the schemes begin to lose their employment numbers, they gradually dwindle. That is the issue that is really facing rural employment schemes because they cannot recruit people. They have people on the schemes who can participate and want to continue but because of the rigidity of the criteria they have to leave the schemes. That is the issue.

I assure the Deputy that this is not a problem confined to rural areas. The same problems are affecting valuable community schemes across all of our constituencies which are running into difficulties. There are other employment opportunities for people. It is hard to get supervisors to support these schemes.

The Government is killing them.

Deputy Mattie McGrath should have confidence in his group leader.

It is harder to get participants and they need these valuable programmes to be continued. The Government has recognised the need to adapt this scheme for the circumstances we now face. That is the purpose of the interdepartmental committee that the Minister has established. I have every confidence that we can work out something that will deliver a better balance for communities and for those who are participating and to ensure that people can contribute even if they are not in a position to hold down a full-time job in the private sector.