Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 March 2022
778. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she will review the community service programme contract between POBAL and community and voluntary groups given that there have been no pro-rata increases since 2015 even though the minimum wage has increased from €8.65 in 2015 to €10.50 which is an increase of 21.4%; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12345/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department’s Community Services Programme (CSP), currently supports over 420 community organisations to provide employment opportunities and local services, through a social enterprise model.
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 contribution towards the overall cost of the employees with funding of €19,033 provided for each full time equivalent (FTE) position and €32,000 for a manager, where warranted.
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 currently over 1,700 FTE positions supported under the CSP. 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 of €12.90 per hour.
My Department and Pobal are currently working on a restructuring of the programme, following the independent review of the CSP, undertaken by Indecon International Economic Consultants. They are also engaging with a Consultative Group representative of stakeholders. As part of this ongoing work, the rates of funding and eligibility criteria under the scheme will be reviewed.
In the interim, and pending the transition to the redesigned programme, my Department provided a CSP Support Fund during 2018 and 2019 for those organisations most in need of additional supports. In response to the emergence of Covid-19, my Department developed a €8.95m CSP Support Fund during 2020 and 2021, to help organisations who required additional assistance during the crisis period. The fund supported employers to retain their CSP supported employees on the payroll, provided assistance for the Employers' PRSI contribution up to December 2021 and also supported those organisations most in need of additional support to meet ongoing operational costs such as insurance, light and heat and audit fees.
My Department is continuing to monitor the situation closely in collaboration with Pobal and any additional supports will be considered in light of available resources.
