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FINANCIAL RESOURCES FOR COMMUNITY EMPLOYMENT SCHEMES BEING REVIEWED – SMITH
Cavan-Monaghan Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith has raised again with the Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton TD, the concerns of many communities throughout the country following the reductions in the Community Employment, Training and Materials Grant announced in the recent Budget.
The Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton stated in Dáil Éireann in reply to a Parliamentary Question raised by Brendan Smith that her Department commenced a review of the financial resources of individual schemes and that this review is scheduled to be completed by the end of March.
Deputy Smith was assured by Minister Burton that all sponsors have been contacted by Department Officers at local level to brief them on the review, discuss their returns and deal with any queries that the sponsors may have and that the submissions will be made to those Officers.
Minister Burton further added that in addition to these local discussions, discussion and consultation with the main representative bodies and stakeholders, including Councils involved in Schemes will take place over the coming weeks in regard to funding.
Deputy Brendan Smith told the Northern Standard that, at the request of a number of Community Groups throughout Cavan and Monaghan he had raised the serious concerns in relation to the budgetary cutbacks and he referred specifically to the concerns raised by Clones Town Council. He added that the Community Employment Schemes are extremely important both for individual participants and for local communities due to the wide range of services provided by such schemes.
