Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 January 2021
238. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to difficulties faced by community employment schemes in replacing participants when the three-year term is up; if she will consider relaxing this rule to ensure that valuable work in communities including the provision of services to some of the most vulnerable persons are protected and maintained; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3534/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Community Employment (CE) Scheme is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis.
In general CE placements for new entrants aged between 21 and 55 years are for one year. CE participants who are working towards a Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) major award can seek to extend their participation on CE by up to two years to enable them to reach the required standard of qualification.
CE participants aged 55 years or older can remain on CE for three years and do not have to work towards a QQI major award.
A maximum of three consecutive year's participation on CE is permissible. A person may re-qualify for CE after a twelve-month break once they satisfy the qualifying conditions. An overall lifetime limit of six years applies to all CE participants (seven years for those on a disability payment).
CE participants over the age of 62 can participate on CE on a continuous basis until they reach the State Pension age via the CE Service Support Stream (SSS). Participation is subject to the availability of SSS places, satisfactory performance on the CE scheme and, annual approval by the Department. The number of places available for SSS participants within each CE scheme is subject to limitation criteria.
Up to recently, CE recruitment has not presented an issue for CE sponsoring authorities or the Department. However, the challenges caused by the ongoing Covid-19 pubic health restrictions in place to varying levels since last year, coupled with the return to Level-5 restrictions, has had a negative impact on the ability of a number of CE schemes to recruit new CE participants.
Throughout the onset of the Covid-19 emergency in March 2020, the subsequent level-5 restrictions introduced in October, 2020 and more recently, the return to level 5 restrictions announced by Government in December, 2020, my Department has continued to provide funding and support for CE schemes while introducing other contingency measures, to support CE schemes and CE participants, including the extension of CE participant contracts.
Department officials have continued to liaise with CE sponsoring authorities throughout the three waves of the Covid-19 emergency to arrange for CE participants who were due to finish on their respective CE schemes, to have their contracts extended while the level-5 restrictions are in place, unless a CE participant is taking up employment or reaches the State Pension age. The latest CE contract extension date for any persons whose contract were due to come to a end since last October is the 26th March, 2021 and it is intended that there will be a phased ending of contracts for this cohort of CE participants after this date.
CE eligibility is continually evaluated by my Department officials and relevant proposals continue to inform related policy discussions. Other than the above contingency measure, it is not my intention to revisit the 3 year rule at this juncture, as to do some would prevent other long term unemployed persons availing of this worthwhile opportunity.
I am fully committed to the future of this programme and 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.
