Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy is aware, community employment, CE, aims to help long-term unemployed people to re-enter the workforce by breaking their cycle of unemployment through a return to a regular work routine. To this end, CE also provides training and development to participants. I am very conscious of the valuable role that CE schemes play in the provision of services to individuals and communities across the county. The current eligibility criteria for the programme have been expanded and changed over the years and are designed to ensure the maximum availability and utilisation of places. The basic eligibility requirement is that a person is currently in receipt of a CE-qualifying payment from my Department for the requisite period. Recent changes to the eligibility criteria for CE include the reduction in the entry age for participants working directly with service users in the child care and social health care sectors to 21 years of age. The standard minimum entry age for CE is 25. The eligibility criteria for participants aged 62 and over have been eased in terms of the maximum duration they can remain on the programme.

With the ongoing welcome reductions in the number of people unemployed, the Deputy will understand that issues such as the appropriate level of expenditure, the number of places and the criteria for participation on employment schemes all need to be considered and reviewed given the changes in the economy. I hope to bring a memorandum to Government on these matters in the coming weeks. If changes are agreed, consultations with stakeholders will be facilitated before their introduction.

See this speech in context