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

I am not sure if the Deputy was in the Chamber earlier but at risk of repeating myself, I will give the answer and we can elaborate and go a different direction with it. My Department operates a number of employment support schemes including community employment, Tús and the rural social scheme for long-term unemployed persons and low-income farmers. I acknowledge the important role played by Tús supervisors in providing valuable opportunities to participants, and in supporting the delivery of key services to local communities across the country. As Tús supervisors are employees of the individual implementing bodies, neither the Department nor the State is the employer of this group of workers. Nevertheless, recognising the valuable role they play in delivering services on behalf of the Department, departmental officials continue to hold meetings with representative associations to discuss employment related matters. As I already stated, and as part of this regular engagement, Department officials have met the union and employing companies' representative groups in connection with a claim seeking pay parity of Tús and RSS supervisors with CE supervisors. As outlined in an earlier reply, there is a difference in the supervisor roles, with CE supervisors having a key role in drawing up and supervising individual participant learning and development plans. As a consequence, we would expect the service fees paid to the service providers to reflect this difference in scope. That said, the Department, in its role as funder of the programmes is open to proposals and suggestions from the implementing bodies. It is important to note this is not a matter for determination by the Department alone, and any proposal that might be brought forward will be subject to the approval of the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform and will need to stand on its own merits.

My officials continue to be available to liaise on the issue with the union and employing companies' representatives. I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.

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