Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 167: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason community employment schemes are having their wages cut by 5.5% in comparison to cuts in jobseeker's allowance for those of that age group at 4.1%. [48465/09]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 169: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason the reduction in community employment scheme payment was higher than the cut in jobseeker's allowance in view of the disincentive this may be to those who are working on the scheme (details supplied). [2002/10]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 167 and 169 together.

The Community Employment Scheme participant payments are comprised of their Social Welfare entitlement and a weekly allowance. The Jobseeker's Allowance was reduced by 4.1% in the December budget while the CE allowance was reduced by from €24.40 to €20 per week. The cuts in CE were necessary to fund increased activation measures in 2010 including an additional 500 CE places to bring the total number of CE places to 23,300.