Community Employment (CE) 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 1 year. As the Deputy is aware, 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 2 years to enable them to reach the required standard of qualification. CE participants aged 55 years or older can remain on CE for 3 years and do not have to work towards a QQI major award. A number participants who are aged over 55 who commenced on the scheme before 2017 can stay on CE for six consecutive years. Therefore participants across the various age cohorts have considerable periods of time to complete the training and development aspects of CE. I agree that training and upskilling of participants is a very important component of CE schemes and is one I fully support.
As the Deputy is aware, my Department has continued to provide funding and support for CE schemes since the onset of the Covid-19 emergency in March 2020. Furthermore a number of CE schemes, which provide essential community services, were in a position to continue to deliver these services, while complying with public health restrictions in place at differing times over the past year.
During each period of Level-5 restrictions, CE participants, whose contracts were due to end during these restrictions, have had their contracts extended for the duration of these restrictions, as a minimum. In early March 2021, Minister Humphreys and I announced funding for a further CE contract extension for participants, up until 2nd July 2021. Over 7,000 CE and Tus participants will benefit from this latest contract extension, that applies to all participants whose contracts were due to finish since end-October 2020. These extensions also provide many participants with additional time to complete their training and work experience on CE.
It is important to note that when CE participants are eventually due to finish on their respective schemes after the 2nd July, their exit will be undertaken on a coordinated, phased basis over a number of months. This will support the ongoing delivery of services by schemes and will be coordinated with the recruitment of new participants to schemes.
Where a CE participant finishes up on their CE scheme without completing the training outlined in their Individual Learning Plan (ILP) and if unfortunately, they remain unemployed, they may continue their development through a range of training supports provided by my Department such as the Training Support Grant (TSG) and the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA). Department case officers will engage with former CE participants to discuss the available options.
Contract extension dates will continue to be monitored in line with Government public health restrictions in place over the coming months. At the same time, I need to ensure that CE places are available for the incoming cohort of long term unemployed, once we start to move beyond the COVID public health restrictions.
The priority for my Department is to ensure that all employment and activation programmes have the best outcomes for participants. CE will continue to be made available to support those who are long term unemployed and furthest removed from the labour market, while maintaining the role of CE as an active labour market programme.
I am fully committed to the future of these programmes and will continue to support and improve the programmes for the benefit of the CE participants and the valuable contribution being made to local communities through the provision of services.
