Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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206. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the level of negotiations her Department has held with the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union regarding community employment supervisors' pensions, and her strategy to bring these conclusions to a satisfactory conclusion without delay. [25074/15]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Discussions at the invitation of SIPTU and Impact, which took place earlier this year, were conducted with the Department’s CE Policy Unit.

The Deputy will be aware that CE supervisors are the employees of private companies. In the circumstances, it is not possible for the State to take over responsibility for funding pension arrangements for employees of private companies, even where those companies are reliant on State funding. This position was confirmed by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (D/PER) to this Department in March of this year.

The D/PER’s position is that private companies contracted by the State to provide a service, including those in the community sector, must manage their expenditure pressures, including labour and pension costs, from within existing funding levels.

It should be noted that the Department of Social Protection is not the employer of CE supervisors and such employees are not public servants. They are employees of limited companies that receive public funding. If this pension claim was to be funded by the State, it would have an impact on pay costs and would result in potential claims from employees of other companies that receive State funding and operate in the community and voluntary sectors.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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207. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she considers it appropriate that many supervisors of Community Employment Schemes are working on the same contracts as participants, as this is causing anxiety regarding their job security; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25075/15]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Since Community Employment (CE) commenced in April 1994, the period for which a CE Sponsor contracts with a supervisor is a matter between the Sponsor as the employer, and the supervisor, as the employee. However, DSP funding is only provided for the duration of the Agreement that DSP has with the Sponsoring organisation which is on an annual basis.

Supervisors (and participants) are excluded from the Section 9 provisions of the , as under Section 2 of this Act they are, “employees with a contract of employment which has been concluded within the framework of a specific public or publicly-supported training, integration or vocational retraining programme”. This means that individual CE contracts for supervisors cannot be of indefinite duration. However, as supervisors are not subject to any participation caps, they can be employed by a Sponsor (subject to the satisfaction of the employer) on rolling contracts for as long as funding is available for the supervisor position.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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208. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her Department is not the employer of Community Employment supervisors, the reason it is in a position to issue instructions, targets, and criteria, which must be met. [25076/15]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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As the Deputy is aware, the Community Employment (CE) programme is under the remit of the Department of Social Protection (DSP) since the enactment of the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2010.

Under the programme, DSP provides funding for local sponsoring organisations to provide training, upskilling and educational opportunities for jobseekers and other vulnerable groups in the community. This funding is granted under an annually renewable legal agreement/contract between the Sponsoring Organisation and the Department.

Article 1 of the CE Agreement provides that “the Sponsor shall agree to carry out the project only as described in the application submitted and in accordance with the terms and conditions of this agreement as set out above, and in accordance with the conditions and objectives of Community Employment as communicated by the Department of Social Protection from time to time.” This last clause pertains to the CE Procedures Manual issued by the Department and details how CE, as a programme, is to be administered by approved Sponsoring Organisations.

Under Article 3 of the CE Agreement, “The Sponsor shall at all times be an independent contractor for all purposes and the relationship of principal and agent shall not exist between the parties and all persons recruited by the Sponsor shall be their/her/his sole responsibility.” The supervisor and participants are legally in the employment of the local sponsoring organisation. Their contracts of employment list the Sponsor as the employer.