Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The CE scheme is a State employment scheme that provides the opportunity for long-term unemployed people to contribute to their communities while at the same time upskilling themselves for employment opportunities that will become available. CE placements can play an important role in breaking the cycle of long-term unemployment for some and improve their chances of employment.

As part of the July job stimulus, the Government announced 3,000 additional places on State employment schemes, including CE and Tús. My departmental officials will work with CE-sponsoring authorities to make the additional CE placements available to suitable initiatives, subject to the agreed scheme qualification criteria.

The CE budget for 2020 is €364 million. At the end of October 2020, there were 19,244 participants in the scheme. While referrals to CE schemes can continue during the period of public health restrictions, the number of new placements has obviously been impacted by both the need for some schemes to suspend or reduce operations and the fact that Department staff have been redeployed to support the payment of the pandemic unemployment payment. During this period, CE-sponsoring authorities were supported in extending the placements of people whose placements were due to end and were encouraged to promote awareness of the benefits of CE and CE schemes in their communities, ensuring the CE vacancies were well publicised. They can advertise their existing CE vacancies free of charge on the Department’s JobsIreland website.

As restrictions are lifted, my Department will work collaboratively with CE sponsors to identify and refer candidates not just to fill existing CE vacancies but also to establish and fill the additional places provided under the July jobs stimulus package. I am fully committed to the future of this programme and I will continue to support and improve it for the benefit of the CE participants and because of the valuable contribution being made to local communities.

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