Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for the questions, and I will do my best to answer them. On the enterprise support grant and people over the age of 66, the pandemic unemployment payment is payable to people between the ages of 18 and 66. This is consistent with other social protection schemes payable to people of working age who have lost their employment. People aged 66 years and over are provided for through the contributory State pension or the means-tested non-contributory State pension. Anyone over the age of 66, therefore, is getting a payment, whether it is a contributory or non-contributory State pension. They are entitled to one of those. A person in receipt of the contributory State pension can retain his or her entire State pension and employment income. If a person does not have the required number of contributions to receive the maximum rate of the contributory State pension, he or she may qualify for the non-contributory State pension, depending on the person's circumstances.

People aged 66 and over may also be entitled to auxiliary supports such as free travel, fuel allowance, household benefits, packages and the living alone allowance. There are many other supports, therefore, that they are getting. They can, if they are over 66, apply for the employment wage subsidy scheme. They are also entitled, if they have a business premises, to get the restart grant and the restart plus grant, and there are a number of other supports. In terms of social protection, our payments and supports under the pandemic are cut off at the age of 66. We have looked at it but we are still coming back with the same answer, that they are getting the other payments. We are trying to be fair and make sure that everybody gets the support, including those who have lost their jobs and have no other form of income. They have their pensions and all the add-on benefits that come with the pension to help them meet their costs.

Regarding community employment, CE, and Tús schemes, Deputies will agree with me when I say that CE workers the length and breadth of the country do a wonderful job in the services they provide in local communities. We have examined CE schemes. Only a couple of years ago, we increased the age to which someone could remain on a scheme. I believe it is 62 years of age now. There has been an increase in the number of participants in CE schemes and it should increase further from 19,244 at the end of October to 22,700 by 2021. The number of participants in Tús schemes should increase from 3,700 at the end of October to 5,500 by quarter 2 of 2021. The 3,000 additional places envisaged in the July stimulus package are over and above the February 2020 position, with a breakdown of 75% CE and 25% Tús. That is the level we are aiming towards.

Regarding back to work initiatives, we have the work placement and experience programme. It is a very good programme and we plan for 10,000 participants. We are finishing up its details and hope to announce it shortly. Many of us know people who were able to avail of a similar programme in the past and who got good jobs out of it. There are still some issues that we need to address with the programme, but we will announce it shortly. We will also engage with employers and ensure that the programme benefits the employee and the employer.

The CE supervisor issue is a long-running one. We have all had representations on it on foot of a Labour Court ruling in 2009. We have been engaging with supervisors. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, has also been engaging with them. I believe he has met them. Discussions are ongoing between my Department and his. We hope that we will be able to find a resolution to this long-running issue and are working hard on that.

I take the Deputies' concerns about JobPath on board. The OECD has worked with my Department to measure the effectiveness of JobPath. The findings, which were published last year, indicated that weekly earnings for JobPath clients were 17% higher and employment outcomes were 26% better compared with similar individuals who were not supported by JobPath. Given the current level of unemployment and the fact that many people are receiving the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP - unfortunately, some will never return to their old jobs because those jobs will not be there any longer - we cannot let the JobPath contract lapse without replacing that capacity. JobPath contractors provide approximately 40% of our public employment services' capacity. There would not be sufficient capacity within the existing structures to support the anticipated increase in numbers requiring access to employment services without there being a JobPath service in 2021. We have examined this issue and, in light of our situation, we have rolled JobPath out for a further year. We could not have done otherwise, given that we would not have the necessary capacity without it. That said, we have put out to tender local employment services in four areas that do not have any currently. I hope that the local providers will be able to submit an offer to do that work.