Ms Geraldine Hurley:

I thank the committee members for the invitation to speak today. I am joined by my colleagues, Rónán Hession and Tony Kieran. We provided the committee with a copy of this statement in advance of the meeting. The committee has asked for an update on the operation of the rural social scheme, RSS, and its interaction with community employment, CE, and Tús and the operation of the carer’s allowance scheme.

It might be useful to first set out the current labour market context, which is as summarised by the Chairman. Employment rates have recovered faster than expected following the lifting of Covid restrictions and over 2.5 million people are now in employment. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has fallen to 4.8%, with just over 172,000 people now on the live register. Post-Covid, we have moved very quickly to a situation where labour supply is tight and with some employers reporting difficulties in recruitment. As we continue to recover from Covid, this labour market environment sets the context in which employment schemes and programmes operate.

The Department operates community employment, the rural social scheme and Tús. There is commonality across all schemes in that they are delivered by the community and voluntary sector to provide placements for the long-term unemployed or, in the case of RSS, underemployed people. CE and Tús serve a dual purpose, first, to provide a stepping stone to employment for people who have had difficulty, over an extended period, in securing full-time employment, and, second, in doing this, to provide services in and for the local community. There are currently over 19,000 participants on CE and just under 5,000 on Tús, with a further 2,890 on RSS.

Post-Covid, there are vacancies on schemes, which is posing challenges for some of them. Recent positive employment trends, with the reduction in unemployment and in the number of long-term unemployed, do impact our schemes, just as they impact employers recruiting in the open labour market. In many ways, this a positive development but it means there is a smaller pool of candidates, that the candidates who are available are more likely to face significant employment barriers and that, overall, it is more difficult to fill vacant places.

The Department continues to work closely with schemes to fill vacancies and to adapt terms and conditions to the prevailing labour market conditions. The most recent reforms to the conditions governing the schemes were introduced by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O’Brien, at the start of the year. Prior to setting these out, I will briefly explain the three schemes.

As members are aware, CE is a long-standing scheme and was set up in 1994. Participants gain work experience by providing a range of services of benefit to local communities, with the objective of assisting participants to find employment. Examples of activities include amenities management, arts and culture, sports, Tidy Towns, meals on wheels, childcare and health-related services. Currently, those who are unemployed and in receipt of an eligible payment can participate in CE. CE placements are generally between one and three years, with a lifetime maximum of six years. Since the start of 2022, those who are over 60 years are exempt from these limits and can remain on their scheme until they reach pension age. The State investment in CE is significant. The budget for CE in 2022 is €375 million, supporting over 840 schemes countrywide, and this can cover around 22,500 participant places.

The rural social scheme, which was introduced in 2004, is an income support initiative that provides part-time employment opportunities for farmers and fishermen. Eligibility for participation in RSS largely derives from farm assist, with the farm assist means assessment applying to participants on the scheme. Participants must continue to be actively farming or fishing. The total budget in 2022 is significant at €52 million and the scheme, which has sanction for 3,350 places, currently has some vacancies. The type of work carried out by RSS participants in rural areas includes enhancing the local environment, energy conservation work and providing community care. The RSS is delivered through local development companies and Údarás na Gaeltachta.

Tús is an activation measure that commenced operation in 2011. It provides one-year, quality work opportunities in the community and voluntary sectors for those who are unemployed for more than a year. The scheme is delivered by local development companies and Údarás na Gaeltachta. Activities include village and countryside enhancement projects, social care and care for the elderly, preschool and after-school services. The budget for Tús in 2022 is €112.6 million. The 2022 budget allocation can cover just under 7,000 participant places.

With regard to the conditions on the schemes, participants on all three schemes are contracted to work 19.5 hours per week and their rate of pay is based on their underlying social welfare payment plus an additional €22.50 per week, subject to a minimum payment of €230.50 per week. Participants may also receive increases in respect of a qualified adult and child dependants and retain secondary benefits.

As with all other sectors of the economy and society, Covid-19 presented very real challenges for the operation of employment support programmes. I am aware that many schemes played a key role in supporting communities during this period. The Department put in place emergency measures to support schemes throughout the pandemic, in particular through extending participant contracts. This occurred on a number of occasions, initially from March 2020 up to April 2022. These extensions allowed participants to remain on CE and Tús schemes much longer than the one, three or six years normally permitted. This provided schemes with certainty as regards their ability to deliver important local services, while ensuring that participants were able to complete work experience and training programmes impacted by shutdowns. As with other Covid support measures, these are now being wound down. Participants with Covid-related extended contracts started to leave schemes from early April 2022. This will continue on a phased basis over a number of months, well into 2023.

As the economy and society emerged from Covid, it was clear, given the resurgence in open labour market employment, that some schemes were encountering difficulties maintaining services and that this could continue in 2022 and into 2023. This derived from issues in regard to the filling of vacancies. As a consequence, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O’Brien, announced wide-ranging reforms to schemes last December. These included permitting all persons over 60 years of age to stay on CE and RSS until reaching pension age; ensuring that CE participants whose contract term is coming to an end will be permitted to stay on CE until a replacement is found; and updating the baseline year to 2014 and ensuring time spent on CE before this baseline year does not count towards lifetime limits on CE.

In introducing reforms such as these, a careful balance needs to be maintained between providing employment support measures for the long-term unemployed or underemployed people, on the one hand, and delivering important local services, on the other, and, in doing this, to ensure participants are supported to progress on to employment, in particular when there are large numbers of unfilled work opportunities available in the open labour market. The Department is continuing to consider how terms and conditions can be modified to support the delivery of local community services in the current strong labour market environment, and some proposals are currently being considered by the Minister for submission to Government shortly.

The Department holds regular meetings with employment support schemes and their representatives for exchange of views and to work through operational issues. For example, an operational forum covering all schemes meets three times each year. The Minister for Social Protection and the Minister of State, Deputy O’Brien, regularly attend these meetings. Ministers also visit and engage with schemes throughout the country. Departmental staff, whether locally through the community development officers or otherwise, work closely with schemes on all aspects of their operation. Centrally, there are also meetings with various groups and organisations involved on schemes, including the Irish Local Development Network, ILDN, and Pobal.

I will now address issues in relation to carers. Carer’s allowance is the primary income support through which the Department supports carers. Carer’s allowance is a payment to people on low incomes who are caring full-time for a person who needs support because of age, disability or illness. There are currently just under 91,000 people in receipt of carer's allowance.

This year the estimated expenditure on the carer’s allowance scheme is more than €990 million. As part of budget 2022, significant changes were made to the carer’s allowance means test. The capital and savings disregard was increased from €20,000 to €50,000 while the weekly income disregard was increased from €332.50 to €350 for a single person and from €665 to €750 for carers with a spouse or partner. These changes came into effect on 2 June and many carers will now be brought into the carer's allowance system for the first time. Along with the 2020 measure, increasing the number of hours a carer could work from 15 to 18.5 hours per week allows more carers who are in a position to work to have a higher household income.

As part of budget 2021, the carer’s support grant was increased by €150 to €1,850. It is automatically paid to recipients of carer's allowance, carer's benefit and domiciliary care allowance. Carers who are not in receipt of one of these payments may also qualify for the grant. On 2 June, this grant was paid to some 121,000 carers and their families. The overall cost of the grant this year is €262 million.

In conclusion, the Department values the very real contribution all employment schemes make to their communities and to the individual person participating in the schemes. The Department is very aware of the challenges currently faced by CE, Tús and RSS. Both the Minister and the Minister of State are currently examining a further set of proposals to support schemes by further improving the recruitment and referral process, extending eligibility to new cohorts and reducing the level of participant churn on some schemes. This is with a view to bringing proposals on all three schemes to Government in the near future. This underlines that the operation of these schemes and their interplay with other social welfare benefits, local communities and the wider labour market is kept under constant review with the aim of ensuring they continue to fulfil their remit and operate to the benefit of all stakeholders even as labour market conditions change. I thank the Chair. My colleagues and I are happy to respond to any questions members may have.