A strong denial that up to 13,000 places on community employment schemes are to be cut next year was issued yesterday by the Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Mr Frank Fahey.
The extent of planned cutbacks to the scheme, if any, will be made known on Thursday when the Budget estimates are published.
Mr Fahey described as "seriously exaggerated" the level of reductions currently being speculated about. He did not say, however, how many places would be funded next year.
A group representing supervisors of the schemes said the Government had already broken a commitment not to reduce the number of participants below 28,000.
That figure was agreed under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF), the three-year social partnership deal which expires shortly.
"They [the Government] have broken their promises before in relation to the PPF, so it's very difficult to trust them," said Ms Triona O'Connor, spokeswoman for the National Network of Community Employment Supervisors.
The group claims to represent about half of the 2,500 supervisors currently managing schemes.
Mr Fahey said participation rates in the schemes would average 28,000 this year, with an estimated year-end level of 25,000.
As part of an overall restructuring of the programme approved by the Government in 1999, place numbers were being reduced on a phased basis in line with the reduced numbers of long-term unemployed and a "strategic shift in policy" in favour of greater investment in training and other "more appropriate supports", he said.
Participation levels next year would be decided by a number of factors, he added.
These included the rate of progression by participants into the open labour market, employment trends and the "mainstreaming" of places into the education sector.
Ms O'Connor claimed the Government was focusing on numbers rather than the human cost of cutbacks in the scheme, which provides jobs for people over 25 who have been on social welfare for a year or more.
Many small towns and villages, she said, were totally dependent on the scheme to provide employment.
Mr Fahey said the Government was "very much aware" of the contribution that the schemes had made to the development of services for local communities.
Ministers were also aware of the concern in communities at the recent reductions in the schemes and the prospect of further cutbacks.
He said there was a need to ensure that communities got the best value from the reduced schemes now available, and that priorities reflected current rather than past needs. In that context, FÁS, the State training and employment agency, was undertaking a review of the scheme.
Speculation about cuts of up to 13,000 places arose from an internal FÁS document, drawn up as part of that review, which was leaked some weeks ago.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment insisted at the time, however, that the document had been merely exploring various options, and no decisions had been taken.
