Mr. Oliver Egan:

I am accompanied by Ms Mary Donnelly, who has responsibility for community employment and JI; Mr. T.J. Fleming who is the principal officer based in Tubbercurry with responsibility for RSS, Tús and CSP; and Mr. John Lee, who is assistant principal reporting to Ms Donnelly on community employment and is one of our accountants.

The committee has invited us here to discuss how unemployment can be minimised and the roles community employment and the other schemes can play in supporting people in getting back to work. Pathways to Work sets out to improve how the State engages with and supports the unemployed to get back into the workforce. It is being delivered alongside the measures in the Government’s action plan on jobs to help create new employment opportunities. The approach set out in Pathways to Work is designed to build on existing Government policies to ensure that as many new job opportunities as possible are filled by those on the live register. The challenge in Pathways to Work is to ensure that the creation of new jobs results in a reduction in unemployment, particularly long-term unemployment so that individuals do not become permanently disenfranchised within our society.

The Department of Social Protection is engaged with the delivery of income support payments, activation of those of working age and the control of fraud and abuse of the system. On activation, the aim of the Department is to engage with every unemployed individual to ensure that his or her first day out of work is also the first step on the pathway back to work. Future funding of employment programmes, particularly community employment, will reinforce the key objectives required by the Department as outlined earlier. This requires a more focused engagement with people on programmes such as CE and greater targeting of activation places and opportunities to further the progression of unemployed people into work.

Community employment is one of a number of employment schemes managed by the Department of Social Protection. Other smaller programmes that are similar in many respects to community employment are the rural social scheme, the community services programme, job initiative and Tús. Members of the committee have been furnished with a copy of the financial review of CE schemes. Therefore, I will not go into the background and the main features of CE in detail although I am very happy to take questions on the review. I will, however, point to a number of key areas that I feel are pertinent to the committee. In addition, I will make reference to the other schemes already mentioned.

Over the years CE has become a vital service to communities in remote rural areas and areas of urban disadvantage. It has developed into a somewhat unique programme that integrates employment interventions and training for the individual with community services. It is the largest labour market activation programme in Ireland. The 2012 budget for CE is approximately €340 million and the programme has 23,300 places, including approximately 1,400 supervisors. Some 1,136 CE schemes throughout the country provide a wide range of social services to local communities.

A key function of CE is supporting social inclusion and counteracting the drift into long-term unemployment. The programme is targeted in the main at people over 25 who are long-term unemployed and very distant from the labour market. Participants on CE are in receipt of specified social welfare payments for a minimum period of one year and include people on the live register, lone parents and people with a disability. Within these categories there are participants associated with long-term disadvantage such as ex-offenders, people with drug dependency and people from the Traveller community. CE is a broad and flexible programme that has been utilised to address many social challenges presenting at individual or societal level such as rehabilitative programmes and supporting communities in the provision of services.

Many new entrants to CE come from a background of educational disadvantage. Just over half of new entrants to CE have a qualification of no higher than junior certificate. Of these, one in five had only primary level education or no record of achievement. Males on the programme tend to have lower education attainment than females. In 2011, more than 37,000 components of learning were completed by CE participants and nearly 17,000 of these were accredited by FETAC under the national framework of qualifications as minor awards. Approximately one quarter of CE participants are between 25 and 35 years with more than half aged 45 or older. This programme is predominantly focused on older, low-skilled jobseekers and requires a different type of environment from other programmes - one that supports and understands the adult learner.

I have said CE has had two main objectives: to help the long-term unemployed gain employment and to support organisations in providing services to communities. This dual mandate can lead sponsors to be over-focused on the service provision sometimes to the detriment of the progression of the job seeker. The primary focus of the Department for the CE participant is to assist them in gaining the skills and work experience to enable them to enter paid employment. Of those who left CE in 2011, we estimate that 19% went into employment and a further 7% went onto further education. Given the current economic environment and taking into account the profile of participants, this can be considered a relatively positive outcome.

The Department is conducting a policy review of the effectiveness of its full range of employment support programmes. The outcome of this review will help determine future policy with regard to the role and appropriate scale of many of these activation programmes. Ultimately, of course, decisions in this area are a matter for the Minister and the Government. The Department is committed to reforming community employment to ensure progression of the individual, support for the sponsor in the delivery of service and value for money for the State.

I will now deal with some of the other smaller programmes. The rural social scheme supplements the incomes of those engaged in small-scale farming or fishing and who are in receipt of or have an entitlement to social welfare payments. The scheme gives participants the opportunity to engage on a part-time basis in providing services of benefit to their local communities. There is no expectation of further progression and no training requirement other than that related to compliance issues and health and safety. Current participation is capped at 2,600 places with 130 supervisors and a budget of approximately €45.6 million.

The community services programme supports the provision of services by community organisations. Currently the programme supports approximately 2,800 employees directly and another 800 to 900 indirectly in 423 not-for-profit companies and small co-operatives. The community companies supported are required to generate a significant level of their resources from the delivery of services by charging fees or selling goods and services. Grant levels as a proportion of turnover in the companies vary from approximately 15% to 85%. The 2012 budget is €45.4 million.

The job initiative scheme was launched in 1996 and initially provided three years' full-time employment for people who, on entry to the scheme, were 35 years of age or over, unemployed for five years or more and in receipt of social welfare payments over that period. Further entry to the scheme was suspended in 2004 when those already on the programme were given the right to remain on the scheme indefinitely. Its main purpose was to assist long-term unemployed people to prepare for work opportunities. This was achieved by providing participants with work experience, training and development opportunities. The job initiative has 1,176 participants operating on a full-time basis with a budget of €27.1 million.

Tús, which is the most recent of these initiatives, aims to provide short term, quality work opportunities for those who are unemployed and to provide certain services of benefit to communities. The programme was announced in the budget in December 2010 and became operational in the middle of 2011. Participants are placed with local community organisations to provide resources to maintain and improve local amenities and facilities in rural and urban communities with inputs being funded either by Tús itself or through local community fund-raising or other income.

Communities, in turn, benefit from the talent of local people with a diverse repertoire of skills and abilities. More specialist tasks may require training and upskilling which is undertaken by the implementing body. Tús has 4,675 participants, of whom 243 are supervisors. The 2012 budget is €84 million. For the first time, all of these programmes come under the Department of Social Protection. Previously, they were spread across different agencies and Departments.

We have commenced a process of reforming the community employment scheme. We have identified where considerable savings can be secured and entered into detailed debates with the local sponsors and community groups. That engagement has been enriching. In 2013 we are hoping to improve the quality and effectiveness of the placement programmes. We are hoping to align the community employment, Tús, JI and RSS programmes more closely, improve value for money and ensure they secure the achievement of the objectives set out in Pathways to Work and that programmes are clearly activation focused or aiming at the provision of community support.

I thank the committee for giving me the opportunity to make this presentation. My team and I will be happy to answer questions from members.