The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Martin, is to relax Community Employment Scheme restrictions which bar people from serving on them for more than three years.
Forty Fianna Fáil TDs yesterday agreed to appoint a delegation to negotiate changes to the scheme next week with the Minister for Finance, Mr Cowen.
In particular, the TDs, who have come under strong pressure on the issue, want places for over-55s, for the disabled and for those caring for people with disabilities. Significant cuts were made to the CES following the 2002 general election, when numbers dropped from over 30,000 to a little over 19,000 during the course of last year.
Last night IBEC said they would accept some changes to the current rules but it insisted the scheme should not offer permanent jobs to people capable of getting work in the private sector.
The issue was debated by Fianna Fáil TDs at last night's meeting, which covered social welfare and employment issues in advance of next month's Budget. Mr Cowen and the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mr Brennan, also attended. "It is fair to say that Minister Martin is determined to do something in this whole area. He is very conscious of the value of the social economy," the Government Chief Whip, Mr Tom Kitt, told The Irish Times last night.
Since its creation, the CES has substantially changed in character from a programme offering training to the long-term unemployed to one that finances social services such as meals-on-wheels.
The Department of Enterprise, Employment and Trade is reluctant to ease the rules too much about over-55s for fear that it will be used by employers as an easy way to get rid of older workers.
The relaxation of the over-55 rule would not necessarily lead to a rise in the number of people employed on CES, Social Economy or Jobs Initiative programmes next year.
"But it should mean that schemes will not die by stealth. Too often, there are not enough people available in an area to fill places so the programme dies by default," one Fianna Fáil source told The Irish Times
Though the Government is prepared to make some concessions, it believes the scale demanded by Fianna Fáil TDs is unaffordable: "This is a real fight still going on. And it is a fight about money," one source said.
