Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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250. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of community employment schemes supervisors and assistant supervisors here; if their salary is paid in full by the State; who their official employer is; the current arrangements that are in place or payment of pensions to such persons; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28388/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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At the end of May 2014, there were 1,379 persons employed as Community Employment (CE) Supervisors and Assistant Supervisors equating to 1,349 full-time equivalent positions (some are part-time/job-sharing). Of the 1,379 total, 1,166 are Supervisors and 213 are Assistant Supervisors. The salaries of CE Supervisors and Assistant Supervisors are paid by their local CE Sponsoring organisations, who are their legal employers. Every four weeks during the CE project annual contract, the CE Sponsors can claim for the costs of supervision from the Department of Social Protection at the approved rates. The Department provides a grant to cover the cost of employing Supervisors for a full-time 39-hour week, exclusive of lunch breaks. This grant can only be used to fund supervisor wage costs for the 39-hour contractual week. Any additional scheme work outside of the 39 hours contractual period will not be funded by the Department.

With regards to pension arrangements for CE supervisors, the Labour Court recommended in July 2008 (LCR19293) 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, the Agency responsible for CE at that time. Notwithstanding the position of this Department (which now has responsibility for CE) in rejecting that liability for these costs be met from public funds, this matter has been the subject of discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the unions representing CE supervisors. Given the level of funding that would be required from this Department, the implementation of the claim is not considered sustainable in light of the current and on-going 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. It should also be noted that this Department is not the employer of CE supervisors and such employees are not public servants. The responsibilities of the sponsoring organisations and the individuals concerned must also be recognised when considering pension provision arrangements.