Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 9 September 2020
194. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 329 of 20 November 2019, when the outcome of the discussions between her Department and representatives of community supervisors will be published (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22804/20]
View answerAs the Deputy is 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 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. A number of Departments, including my own Department, were represented on this group, as were the unions and Pobal.
A detailed scoping exercise was carried out 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. This excluded any provision for an immediate ex-gratia lump sum payment of pension as sought, which could entail a further Exchequer cost of up to €318 million.
Officials from my Department held a series of meetings with CE supervisor representatives to consider related proposals, mindful of the operating environment in which any potential solution will need to exist. Related discussions were also undertaken between Department officials and their counterparts in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER).
Just to clarify for the Deputy, there is no report due to be published by my Department in respect of the CE supervisor pension dispute. My Department officials are continuing to work with all parties at present to try to establish a viable solution to this issue.
