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

I have some further information that might be of use. Nationally, there are approximately 19,000 places on community employment schemes, 10% of which are under the service support stream. The scheme is currently under-subscribed nationally. There are 1,081 community employment scheme participants availing of the service support stream. The 10% limit was previously at the local provider level. We have bumped that up to divisional level which should provide more flexibility for local providers to go beyond the 10% limit to some extent in some situations. That will vary from place to place at a local level. I wish to acknowledge that a lot of people availing of the service support stream also contribute invaluable advice and guidance to newer and less experienced community employment scheme participants over the course of their work and activities.