Ms Geraldine Hurley:

The community employment scheme was established as an employment activation measure for long-term unemployed people. Over time, it is very much true to say, the services delivered through those schemes have become increasingly important for the communities in which they are delivered. The primary objective of the CE scheme, however, remains for it to act as a pathway to help people particularly disadvantaged when seeking employment on that road back to employment. Over time, different rules have been applied and different adaptations have been made to the CE scheme to help this cohort of long-term unemployed people. These are the people recognised internationally as facing the most acute problems in the labour market. Even at times when there are high levels of employment, people in this position can face problems re-entering the labour markets, getting jobs in that open market and moving away from dependency on State supports. That being said, we fully recognise that these services now being delivered, and that we all see, are extremely important and an important aspect of the CE scheme. The balance we must maintain in this regard is to ensure that those dual objectives are supported as we move forward, while also ensuring that an eye is kept on overall cost issues in respect of the Exchequer.

Regarding the RSS six-year rule, the numbers of people that will be affected by it, starting in February 2023, are somewhat less than the Deputy mentioned, because, as she is probably aware, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O’Brien, introduced a change in January 2022 that will remove anybody aged over 60 from the application of that rule. Therefore, of the 1,400 people who started on the RSS after 2017, this rule will no longer apply to 400 of them. This does still leave 1,000 people in this position. Given that there are issues now in filling all the places on the RSS, this rule will pose challenges and we are very much aware of them. This rule, however, will start to be applied from February 2023. As I said, though, we are acutely aware of the challenges that will pose to some schemes and it is being kept under review.

The Deputy also mentioned the review of the RSS not being referred to. That review came from an interdepartmental group report produced at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. One of the things the report requested was a review of the RSS that would look at the operational responsibility for the scheme and where it would lie. That review has a wider focus than the six-year rule, but this is work that will commence soon. Equally, however, it is the case that the environment has changed significantly since that report was produced and since that recommendation was made. Therefore, we must also look at its relevance in a post-Covid-19, full employment environment in respect of the scope of that review, what aspects we need to examine and the dual balance in the context of schemes.

Turning to the vacancies on the CE schemes, those the Deputy referred to were probably advertised on JobsIreland.ie, and there are many advertisements for CE schemes on that platform now. I assure Deputy Kerrane again, however, that people will not be required to leave a CE scheme, even when they come to the end of their contract or their extended contract, unless a replacement is in place to ensure that the service delivery aspect of the scheme can continue to be maintained and that the scheme remains viable. I already mentioned a figure of 600 people who have had their contracts further extended since the beginning of April 2022 and this process will continue. Additionally, regarding referrals from the Department onto schemes, we are doing a great deal of work there in respect of working with the schemes on how the referral process works, in respect of ensuring that people are referred in an efficient and timely manner, and also on ensuring that this system works for the benefit of the participants on the schemes. This is being done in conjunction with our case officers in Intreo. That work is ongoing.

The Deputy referenced JobPath. Persons on JobPath are still fully eligible for community employment while they continue their work with JobPath. I will ask Mr. Kieran to discuss eligibility for farm assist.