Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. I agree with him wholeheartedly. Under the community employment procedures manual, it is called a saver clause. On page 30, it states:

Participants who commenced on CE prior to 3rd July 2017 will be entitled to remain under their existing CE eligibility rules, where this is to their advantage. If it is more advantageous to the person, the current criteria can be applied.

What is written in the manual is pretty much black and white. However for some reason, there are people in the Department trying to move the goal posts. As the Tánaiste rightly pointed out, it has been of huge help to people's mental health for them to be out there, helping their community, doing work in it, and perhaps for some, getting to say hello to people, helping work against rural isolation. I thank the Tánaiste for his reply and ask again that he get on to the Minister immediately to resolve this.

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