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Departmental Programmes

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 June 2021

Tuesday, 22 June 2021

Questions (654)

Paul Donnelly

Question:

654. Deputy Paul Donnelly asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the estimated cost of bringing the funding provided for the community services programme up to the current living wage. [32938/21]

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Written answers

The Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports more than 420 community organisations to provide local employment opportunities and social, economic and environmental services through a social enterprise model.

CSP funding of €19,033 is provided for each Full Time Equivalent (FTE) position and €32,000 for each manager position, where warranted.  The CSP contribution is not aligned to the minimum wage and does not meet the full salary cost of supported posts, rather it is a fixed annual co-funding contribution towards the overall cost of the employees.  The CSP contribution must be co-funded by the organisation concerned from other sources, for example, from income received from the public use of their facilities and services.

There are c. 1,700 FTE positions supported under the CSP.  The estimated cost of bringing the funding provided for the FTE supported positions up to the current living wage of €12.30 per hour, plus the employers PRSI of 11.05%, would result in an additional annual cost of c. €14.7m under the CSP, which is not currently available.

However, it should be noted that there are a number of CSP supported organisations currently in a position to pay their staff the living wage rate.

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