Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 September 2021
459. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider allowing more flexibility for participants over 55 years of age that are currently engaged in a community employment scheme given that at present they are unable to have their contracts renewed. [43207/21]
View answerThe aim of the Community Employment (CE) programme is to enhance the employability of disadvantaged and long- term unemployed people by providing work experience and training opportunities for them within their local communities. The programme aims to improve a person’s opportunities to return to the labour market. Participation on CE is for a temporary fixed-term.
CE placements are intended to be temporary and subject to time limits. This is to ensure the continued availability of places on CE schemes for a broad range of long term unemployed candidates.
In general, all CE placements for new entrants aged between 21 and 55 years are for 1 year. However, CE participants, working towards a major educational award, can seek to extend participation by up to two years to enable them to reach the required qualification standards.
There is already additional flexibility as regards participation on CE for those aged 55 and over. For example, those over 55 years of age can remain on CE for up to three years, while CE participants who are aged over 55 and commenced on CE prior to the introduction of the changes in 2017 continue to be eligible to stay on CE for six consecutive years.
CE participants over the age of 62 are allowed to participate on a continuous basis up to the State Pension age on the CE Service Support Stream (SSS), subject to certain criteria In total, 10% of CE placements are available under the service support stream and Department officials continue to encourage take-up of this CE stream.
CE participants’ contracts were extended during the course of the pandemic, which meant that many contracts extended well beyond the time limits mentioned above. As the economy re-opens and the public health restrictions unwind, these COVID-related contract extensions will start to be phased out from the end of October as CE schemes return to providing more standard supports to long term unemployed people and services to communities.
I will continue to support and improve the programme for the benefit of the CE participants and the valuable contribution being made to local communities through the provision of services while ensuring that places continue to be made available to those who are long term unemployed.
