Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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My Department's community services programme, CSP, supports more than 430 community-based organisations to provide local services through a social enterprise model.

The CSP contribution per full-time equivalent position is not aligned with the minimum wage and does not meet the full salary cost of supported posts. It is an annual contribution that must be co-funded by the organisations concerned from other sources, for example, from income generated from the use of facilities and services provided.

A needs-based, differentiated funding allocation model was introduced for the CSP from January last year as an alternative to the previous flat-rate payment model. This new model was designed to support those organisations most in need, providing a higher rate of funding to supported organisations that are identified as operating in areas of high disadvantage, employing individuals from the prescribed programme target groups and with evidence of limited earning potential.

In addition to these revised allocations, a reduction in full-time hours from 39 to 37.5 hours was approved under the redesigned CSP programme, to narrow the co-funding gap for CSP-supported employees even further.

I was very aware of the potential impact of the €1.40 increase to the minimum wage level from 1 January 2024, which was announced as part of budget 2024, and I responded to it. On 13 December last, I announced that the CSP contributions would increase for organisations at the higher level and at the medium level for both FTEs and for managers. These increases will assist CSP organisations to meet higher labour costs from 2024 onwards. I can give some more detail in the follow-up.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy. Some CSP projects do pay the living wage and beyond. It is now clearly a social enterprise model. That is the policy. To assist that we have a coaching and mentoring programme that will be put in place under the European Social Fund, ESF, plus social innovation measure to assist organisations to improve their overall performance including financial sustainability.

I will explain the increases in allocations I announced last December. A full-time equivalent at the higher rate of funding would increase from €23,033 to €25,750. The manager's contribution at the higher level would rise from €36,000 to €37,000 and, in addition, the contribution on the medium level of funding has increased from €21,033 to €23,175, and from €34,000 to €35,000 for a manager on the medium level of funding.