Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 9 November 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection

Community Employment Programme

10:40 am

Photo of Willie O'DeaWillie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for the presentation. A few matters have occurred to me arising from that opening statement. It is interesting there are still the same number of participants on CE schemes as there was when the unemployment rate was much higher. I presume that is because the schemes have been adapted and rules have been changed to accommodate more people. Is that the explanation or only a partial explanation?

Community employment schemes are very popular and do tremendous work. There is no doubt about that and there is big demand for them. I wish, in responding to my constituents, I could establish many more in Limerick because of the big demand. One of the objections always being made about community employment schemes is a lack of training. The witnesses made the point in the statement that they are rolling out a new initiative, with one stream focused on training and the other focusing on giving people the habit of getting back to work, which is what community employment schemes do now. Will they provide more details and has this been rolled out on a pilot basis? When did that start and how extensive is it? I note changes made relating to people who are over 62. That was rolled out on a pilot basis and it is also under review. Has there been any decision on that? It seems to have worked well and many people, in my experience, took it up. They were delighted they were able to continue with it. What is the updated position on that?

Representations have been made to me and, I am sure, to others as well about the problem concerning the interaction between JobPath and the community employment schemes. For example, people have said they are looking for personnel to fill a community employment scheme but they cannot get participants. There are people who could potentially participate but they cannot because they have signed up to JobPath. The witnesses indicate this is because jobseekers are already participating with the JobPath service. It is fine if one is participating but if one is simply sitting around, waiting to be called for a job and doing nothing else, I would not describe it is participation. That person might be signed up but is not actively participating. This has been raised a number of times in the Dáil but I do not understand the logic of a position where, in some parts of the country at least, community employment schemes are crying out for members and people are available to serve and make them a reality but they are being stopped from participating for a year because they have signed up to JobPath. The JobPath scheme might not have succeeded in providing any employment for them. I do not understand the logic and I need something more detailed to get my head around it.

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