Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The reason I included it in the question was that it had been raised with me by a number of groups. At least there is now clarification that no moratorium is in place and, hopefully, that will help groups to address issues. As the Minister stated, in the case of the Community Lynks Project, a review of the intake of participants is under way. The nature of these schemes is that the numbers can be down one week and then suddenly there is an influx, as has been the case over the past week alone. When I first raised this matter with SOLAS there were 32 participants, but as the Minister indicated today, a further four have joined, and as far as I am aware there will be another two participants by the end of the week. Hopefully, it will be possible to fill the entire complement of 40. At present, there is no indication that the scheme will seek numbers beyond that, despite the problems in the area or neighbouring areas such as Ballyfermot.

Changes made in budgets over the past number of years have seemingly discouraged some people from participating on these schemes. I am at a loss as to why the opportunities are not being taken up other than the fact one is dealing with a client group which can, on occasion, be very chaotic and can drop out of, and try to come back to, schemes. I hope there will be no gap when the need for additional supervisors arises and that the fluctuation in numbers is taken into account before supervisors are discontinued.

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