Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 April 2024
1717. Deputy Paul Donnelly asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the estimated cost of providing extra funding under the community services programme to enable them to pay workers the new national living wage rate. [13723/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department's Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports over 430 community-based organisations to provide local social, economic and environmental services through a social enterprise model, providing a contribution towards the cost of CSP supported staff in organisations.
CSP provides an annual co-funding contribution towards each full-time equivalent (FTE) position being supported, and, where warranted, towards the cost of employing a manager, which must be co-funded by the organisations concerned from other sources, for example, from income generated from the use of facilities and services provided.
There are currently 1,705 full time equivalent positions supported under the programme with funding of €41m allocated to same during 2024. It should also be noted that the programme is currently supporting 346 managers with funding of almost €12.5m during 2024.
My Department estimates that it would cost an additional c. €13.5m to increase the funding allocations to align the CSP contribution with the total cost of employment at Living Wage levels, using the Social Justice Ireland Living Wage figure of €14.80 per hour, published in September 2023.
My Department and Pobal, who manage the programme on behalf of my Department, undertook extensive consultation in recent years during the restructuring of the programme, including consultation with a group representative of relevant stakeholders. A new funding rate allocation model for the CSP programme was introduced from 1st January 2023, as an alternative to the former flat rate payment model.
Since the roll out of the restructured programme in January 2023, my Department has provided an increase of €6,717 per Full-Time Equivalent and €5,500 per Manager for organisations in the ‘High funding need’ category and €4,142 per Full-Time Equivalent and €3,000 per Manager in the ‘Medium funding need’ category. This included an increase to mitigate the effects of the increases in the minimum wage level introduced in January 2023 and in January 2024.
There was no change for the small number of organisations considered to have a low funding need – these are organisations with the strongest earning potential operating in less disadvantaged areas.
In addition to these revised allocations, a reduction in full time hours from 39 to 37.5 hours was approved under the redesigned CSP programme, to narrow the co-funding gap for CSP supported employees even further.
In addition to the above mentioned supports under the CSP, a coaching and mentoring programme is also being put in place, funded under the ESF+ social innovation measure, to assist CSP supported organisations to improve their overall performance, including their financial sustainability.
