Vol. 488 No. 2
166 Mr. P. Carey asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will review the community employment schemes in view of the fact that the loss of Christmas bonus, fuel allowance and so on is a disincentive when taking up these schemes and there are 40,000 people participating on these schemes (detail supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5963/98]
Responsibility for the operation of the community employment scheme lies with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. In so far as the specific issue raised by the Deputy is concerned, however, the position is as follows. The introduction of class A PRSI for community employment — CE — workers, provided for in the Social Welfare Act, 1996, was designed to enhance the PRSI status of CE workers and to put them on a par with other class A workers. The social welfare secondary benefits of butter vouchers, free fuel allowance and the Christmas bonus, are payable only to recipients of long-term social welfare payments. Since former CE workers who qualify or re-qualify for unemployment benefit after their period of CE finishes are in receipt of a short-term payment, they are accordingly ineligible for the social welfare secondary benefits.
While I fully recognise the difficulties facing those former CE workers who no longer have entitlement to certain secondary benefits, the Deputy will appreciate that I am not in a position to introduce special concessionary arrangements for such people without having equal regard to the position of other short-term social welfare payment recipients. Any such concessions would, accordingly, carry a high cost and could only be considered in light of available resources and in the light of other priorities.
