Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 179: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding pension entitlements for supervisors on community employment projects; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40452/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I refer the Deputies to my reply to questions numbers 99, 89 & 102 on 1 December 2011 set out as follows. The position remains unchanged.

The Labour Court recommended in July 2008 that an agreed pension scheme should be introduced for community employment (CE) scheme supervisors and assistant supervisors, and that such a scheme should be adequately funded by FÁS. Notwithstanding the positions of the Department in rejecting that liability for these costs falls to be met from public funds, this matter has been the subject of discussions between the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, my Department, and the unions representing CE supervisors. In the event that funding was required from FÁS, the implementation of the claim is not considered sustainable in light of the current and ongoing fiscal environment and the requirement to contain and reduce public expenditure. The costs of the introduction of any scheme are likely to be of the order of €3m per annum with retrospective costs of the order of at least €30 million

The Deputy should also note that FÁS is not the employer of CE supervisors and such employees are not public servants. Neither was FÁS a party to the Labour Court dispute on this matter. The responsibilities of the sponsoring organisations and the individuals concerned must also be recognised when considering pension provision arrangements.