Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Question 93: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will consider allowing organisations participating in the community services programme to allocate budgetary savings achieved via the adjustments in employers PRSI towards their overhead costs to assist them in the provision of invaluable services to their local communities. [26486/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Community Services Programme (CSP) is designed to address locally identified gaps in the provision of services and to exploit the potential of community assets and resources to improve community well-being. CSP support is designed in such a manner that service providers are required to offer employment opportunities to people from specific target groups. The target group includes people with disabilities, Travellers, recovering drug users, persons who are long-term unemployed and lone parents. The grant is formulated to meet the service providers' statutory requirements with respect to paying the minimum wage and the employer's liability for Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI). With the reduction in the rate of employers PRSI as part of the Jobs Initiative from 1st July 2011, the liability falling on service providers supported by the CSP has reduced. I have no proposals to allocate the savings indicated by the Deputy given the significant demands on other areas of my Department's operations. The Deputy should note that a key requirement of the CSP is that service providers in contract to the Programme generate a significant element of their total turnover from non-public sources.