I want to raise an issue of staffing affecting voluntary and community organisations across the country as interest in the labour activation schemes continues to drop, despite some reform initiatives last year such as those concerning Tús and the community employment scheme. Participant numbers are continuing to fall.

GAA clubs, community councils and Tidy Towns organisations are all suffering from a shortage of applicants. To resolve this issue, I urge the Government to consider expanding the community employment scheme to enable Ukrainian refugees to participate by removing the 12-month signing-on period, given the shortage of applicants across the country and the influx of Ukrainians who may wish to avail of the scheme. It would also be cost-effective for the Government. It would promote social inclusion by allowing our Ukrainian guests the opportunity to engage in the workforce, improve their English-speaking skills and contribute to their local communities.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. We have carried out a number of reviews of the community employment schemes. We have changed some of the criteria, in consultation with them, to expand it and to allow them to keep workers on for longer. There have been a number of good and very positive changes in that regard.

It is almost a year since the first Ukrainian refugees came to this country. We are opening up the community employment scheme to them now. We look forward to working with them and getting them on board. This is very valuable because we can help them with job activation measures and maybe with language classes. It is a great opportunity to help them to integrate into communities. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. I am happy to work with him to progress it further.