Community groups in north Leitrim are to step up a campaign to persuade the Government to change new regulations limiting FAS community employment schemes.
They argue that if the Government persists in enforcing these regulations people who have little prospect of getting a job will have no alternative but to stay on the dole for the rest of their lives. Valuable community projects, such as schemes to improve the environment or provide childcare will also have to end, they claim. The North Leitrim Community Network, which represents 22 different groups, is holding a public meeting at the end of the month and all local public representatives have been invited.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has already rejected a request from the group to change the regulations, and a spokesman, Mr P.J. Leddy said they would now be seeking a special exemption for Co Leitrim as applies in the offshore islands.
As a rural county which had suffered severely from depopulation special consideration should be given to the unique needs of the area, he said.
While limiting the schemes, the Department is also introducing a social economy programme to encourage the setting up of community enterprises, but Mr Leddy said this would not work in Leitrim.
He said only a very small number of such enterprises could be sustained. "This is more a plan for urban areas rather than a rural area like Leitrim."
The change in regulations introduced last year means a person can now do a maximum of three years on community employment schemes, and there must be a one-year gap in these three years and participants must be over 25 years.
Mr Leddy said the age limit would affect young single parents who would have difficulty getting work or accessing training in their own areas.
He said workers on the schemes did very important work which county councils were unable to do, and this had fostered a sense of pride and involvement. He gave the example of a number of waterfalls made accessible and opened up for tourism by scheme workers. Other schemes like the North Leitrim Men's Group and a Disability Personal Assistants Scheme helped vulnerable groups in society. Mr Pat Love, the co-ordinator of the NLMG, disagrees with the Department's response that "the new social economy initiative will cater for the needs of rural workers unable to find work in the open labour market".
At the moment there are 19 men on the scheme. He is applying for a social economy project but says it will employ four men at most. "We have built up their expectations and now we are sending them home again. What the Government is saying is that you have three years of quality of life and after that it's tough luck. You only have a right to your dignity for three years.
"Rather than putting in more stringent regulations, things should be opening up. The Government needs to look at what they are saving on health bills," Mr Love said.
He believes people drawing up the regulations are "not focused on the real issues" and is angry that the opinions of people working on the ground are not taken into account. "I think they should ask us what is best, instead of just coming along and changing the rules. People have a right to work and if you take that away from a person, they are on a slippery slope."