The Government was accused of arrogance by Mr Eamon Ryan (Green Party, Dublin South) in the resumed debate on a Fine Gael motion accusing the Government of reducing the number of places in community employment schemes.

"The changes in the scheme are occurring on the back of the arrogant contention that all is well, that the Irish economy is booming and that unemployment is a thing of the past. In fact, the Government has steered the ship of State into a storm," Mr Ryan said..

"Unemployment is rising, and we will need the community employment schemes. I have the experience of having been on one and having run one back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Many aspects of the boom were born out of some of the schemes that were started at that time."

Mr Ryan said that in his own case a small community employment scheme had taken him off the dole. "I was almost unable to work after a year-and-a-half of not being about to get work.

"What saved me was the ability to start in a small way in a community employment scheme and develop a business idea I had. Within a safe nurturing environment, I was able to go back to work, start working for myself, start a business and bring money into the country."

Mr Arthur Morgan (SF, Louth) said that while the schemes were imperfect, in many cases they were the only positive provisions in impoverished and deprived communities.

"I have no doubt that when they were first introduced by the coalition government in the early 1990s, they were intended as a stopgap measure aimed primarily at reducing numbers on the live register," he said.

" However, ingenious, inventive, and, in truth, desperate communities made the idea work. Now its inventiveness and tenacity are being thwarted, and the same lack of thought from the Government is not just cutting back old branches but is felling the entire tree."

Mr Paddy McHugh (Independent, Galway East) said the uncertain situation relating to community employment schemes was very unfair to participants and sponsors throughout the State.

"Any situation in which one's future, however limited, is uncertain is totally unacceptable, particularly when the uncertainty can be eliminated by the Minister," he said.

Mr Sean Ryan (Labour, Dublin North) accused the Government of deliberately setting out to dismantle the scheme on ideological grounds and to balance the books.

"After five of the most prosperous years in the history of the State, it has identified the most needy and disadvantaged to foot the bill for its mismanagement and incompetence in office. They are to be deprived of the opportunity to work," he said.

The House will vote on the motion today.