Seán Sherlock
Question:32. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the engagement she has had on pension rights for community employment supervisors. [18480/20]
View answerWednesday, 29 July 2020
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Written answers
As the Deputy will be aware, Community Employment (CE) supervisors and assistant supervisors have been seeking for several years, through their union representatives, the allocation of Exchequer funding to implement a 2008 Labour Court recommendation relating to the provision of a pension scheme.
CE sponsoring authorities are the legal employers of their CE supervisors, CE assistant supervisors and CE participants; the Department’s role has always and continues to be that of CE funder.
The issue was examined by a Community Sector High Level Forum, chaired by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform from April to December, 2017 and included representatives of various Departments with responsibility for funding the community and voluntary sector, statutory agencies and also unions representing the CE supervisors.
A detailed scoping exercise was carried out for the High Level Forum with input from the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES), on the potential costs of providing Exchequer support for the establishment of such a pension scheme for employees across the Community and Voluntary sector in Ireland. This exercise estimated a potential cost to the State of between €188 million and €347 million per annum depending on the numbers involved.
Officials from my Department held a series of meetings with CE supervisor representatives to consider proposals for pension provisions, mindful of the operating environment in which any potential solution will need to exist. Discussions were also undertaken between Department officials and their counterparts in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER).
My officials will continue to work with all parties to the discussions to try to establish a viable solution to the issue.