I thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for selecting this matter for discussion and I thank the Minister for coming in to respond to my case. Most right-thinking people and myself welcomed the additional amount of money made available in the last budget for community employment schemes. We were pleased that additional places were to be created to enable a larger number of people to find work in these schemes. That proposal held out great hope for many people, particularly those in the long term unemployed category. The case I make this evening is on behalf of people who are precluded from working on such schemes, specifically married women who, by virtue of the fact that they are not signing on, are debarred from participation in the schemes. I ask that the live register requirements be changed to enable women currently not signing on to be eligible for inclusion in the recently announced CEDP schemes.
A large number of married women stopped signing on when equality legislation was introduced in 1985. At that time they saw no good reason for continuing to sign on because they did not anticipate that any benefit would follow. In the meantime, a number of developments in the training-work area have opened up fresh opportunities. The part-time nature of this work is particularly suited to women working in the home who want to combine work outside the home with the carrying on of their family duties. The extension of the work carried out from what was previously mainly heavy, outside work to work of a clerical, administrative, caring or organisational nature makes the new schemes much more suitable to women.
Ironically, much of the work previously done by women in the community on a non-payment, voluntary basis is, under the CEDP scheme, being offered to men for a wage. This is a clear case of inequality and it should be remedied. I welcome the recent changes brought about by the Minister and his Department for lone parents. They represent a marked improvement on the previous system. However, it makes no sense that many married women who have completed back to work courses are precluded from taking on the work on offer under these schemes.
In The Irish Press today the Minister said that an additional 1,000 people will benefit from the back to work schemes announced by his Department last October. The next logical step is to ensure that married women not signing on and hitherto working in the home will be enabled to find work under the CEDP schemes. I know hundreds of women with small family budgets who are trying to make ends meet and these women would greatly benefit if they were allowed work under those schemes. The extra money would certainly remove many families from the poverty trap. I appeal to the Minister to change the position in this regard.