Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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11. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of her Department’s planned review of the rural social scheme; if Tús will also be examined; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14843/22]

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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My question concerns the upcoming review of the rural social scheme. Will the Minister of State provide a timeline on when that review will begin? Also, will he consider looking at the Tús scheme, either separate to that review or in parallel?

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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The rural social scheme, RSS, is an income support scheme for farmers and fishers who are in receipt of specified social welfare payments and are underemployed in their primary occupation.  The scheme offers participants the opportunity to gain valuable work experience, while providing services to local communities. To qualify for the RSS, a person must be actively farming or fishing, and satisfy the means test assessment required to qualify for the farm assist payment.

In 2017, the total number of places on the RSS was increased to 3,350. On 21 December 2021, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys and I were pleased to announce several changes to the RSS and community employment schemes.  These changes included a provision to allow RSS participants who reach 60 years of age to remain on the scheme until they reach State pension age.  This will immediately benefit 390 existing RSS participants over 60 years of age who commenced on the scheme since 2017. They will now be able to stay on RSS until they reach State pension age.

The Department continually monitors all its income and employment support programmes to ensure they are achieving the best outcomes for participants and for the local communities in which they operate.  As the Deputy indicated, it is intended to undertake a specific review of the operation of the RSS in 2022.  This will be timely, as it will enable us to assess the potential impact of the changes introduced in 2017, in particular the introduction of the six-year time limit for new participants, from that date.  The first group of participants will not be leaving the RSS under the six-year rule until 2023.  The scope of this six-year rule has also been limited to those under 60 years since the start of the year.  It is timely to reassess its impact across all age cohorts in light of the current labour market context. It will be some time before the impact of the changes, implemented from 1 January 2022, on the RSS are fully known, so it is best to carry out the operational review later in 2022.  This will also allow time for schemes to return to normal, post-Covid operations.

It is not intended to carry out a specific review of Tús at this time.  An interdepartmental working group report, which examined the operation of employment schemes, was published in December.  The Department will again examine the recommendations in this report, including any impact on Tús, in light of the reforms introduced in December and the changed environment in which all schemes are operating following Covid and the changed labour market.  

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome that review and it is particularly important, as the Minister of State said, given the six-year rule. I know he has engaged with a number of schemes across the State and many of the supervisors and those involved would have told him what they told me. They are very concerned about the impact of the six-year rule. Some of those I met will lose 15, 16, 17 people next year. They have no idea how they will replace them because they are already struggling to fill places as it is. I do not see why we need to enforce a limitation, such as the six-year rule, on schemes where they cannot find people. It would be different if there were massive demand and people were trying to get on the scheme and could not access it but, unfortunately, that is not the case in many parts of the State and we need to have flexibility in that regard. The six-year rule needs to be examined and that is why the review is so important. Will the Minister of State give an indication of the time of year it will take place because obviously it is important it happens well ahead of next year so we can look at the impact of the six-year rule?

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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There are 2,969 people on the RSS at present and 1,493 of them will not be impacted by the six-year rule. There are also 381 vacancies. It is not impacting capacity and there is spare capacity there, but I take the Deputy's point about the six-year rule, it has been raised with me. It is very much on our radar in terms of looking at it as part of the review. There were also changes brought in with the budget which will broaden the eligibility for income disregard for argi-environmental schemes. They do not come into play until June but once they do, we will start a more formal process. I am doing a lot of ground work in terms of assessing what the opportunities are in relation to the rural social scheme because I believe it has a future. We may also need to look at how we ensure it has a future in the process of the review.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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I also want to raise the issue of eligibility as part of the review. Is this an overall review of the entire scheme? The eligibility is quite limited. It has been raised with me whether people with herd numbers could use nieces and nephews or in-laws so that they too can access the scheme because it is quite limited at present. I referenced Tús because issues have been raised about it being a one-year long scheme. It is quite limited. They are struggling to fill places. They have told me they received the list of referrals from the Department. They contact people and people know they do not have to engage with Tús so they struggle with the list of referrals they receive. In some cases, very few people are actually willing to engage and that also needs to be looked at.

Lastly, if the six-year rule is being looked at through this review, and the Minister of State has acknowledged the importance of looking at its impact given the fact it has been raised, it is also an issue for community employment, CE, schemes. If the impact of the rule for the RSS, the Minister of State might also consider looking at it in the context of CE.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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On Tús, the numbers are in excess of pre-pandemic levels. The spaces are full and we have more to go because of the July stimulus package, but they have exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Referrals to Tús and CE are quite healthy. CE has not recovered in the same way that Tús has. There is a bit of work to do there yet.

On the rural social scheme, I would take the opportunity to promote it as well. I was in Offaly a couple of weeks ago where the implementing body is making efforts to reach out to eligible people in the local community via the farm assist payment. There is knowledge of who is eligible for farm assist and I would encourage any implementing body to spread the word about the rural social scheme. It has huge potential. I was at a scheme in Mayo. The South West Mayo Development Company is co-operating with the National Parks and Wildlife Service to implement a biodiversity project in controlling rhododendron in Mayo. There are many opportunities in the areas of biodiversity and climate action for the rural social scheme into the future.