The Community Employment Scheme (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.
The programme is delivered through independent CE sponsor organisations that receive state funding from the department to cover certain costs including CE participant wages.
CE is a working age activation scheme and CE participants who continue to be funded through CE must be of working age. As a consequence, funding for CE participants is provided up until a CE participant reaches the state pension age.
As the Deputy is aware, in response to the recommendations from the Commission on Pensions, a set of new pension measures were approved by Cabinet back in September of this year.
The set of reforms agreed include maintaining the state pension age at 66, introducing a new flexible pension age model which will mean that from January 2024 people will have the option to continue working up until the age of 70 in return for a higher pension.
However, as the Deputy will appreciate, any extension to participation on CE beyond the State Pension age could significantly impact on the opportunities for those who are long-term unemployed and could undermine CE as an active labour market programme.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.