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

I thank the Deputy for his question. The aim of community employment is to enhance the employability of disadvantaged and unemployed persons by providing work experience and training opportunities for them within their communities. In addition, it helps long-term unemployed people to re-enter the active workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to work routine. The general rule relating to eligibility for participation in community employment, CE, is that the person must be in receipt of a qualifying payment for 12 months or more. This is to ensure that the scheme is targeted at those furthest removed from the labour market and who will benefit most from participation. The exceptions to the eligibility criteria apply to those who would be considered among the most vulnerable in society, and include people from the Traveller or Roma communities, people with addiction issues or who have been recently released from prison.

Recently, participation in CE was extended to include the adult dependants of people in receipt of jobseeker’s allowance as an initiative to assist them to return to the workforce. Currently, access to CE does not include retired manual labourers unless they satisfy the current eligibility criteria. There are no plans at present to change the 12-month eligibility rule in respect of pre-retired manual workers. However, the eligibility criteria for CE continues to be kept under active review by my Department to ensure the best outcomes for individual participants, to support the vital community services and to take account of changes to the labour market.

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