Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Renua Ireland)
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64. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if she will restore the training grant for community employment projects; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41985/15]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The training budget for community Employment (CE) has increased from €5.7m in 2013 and currently stands at €6.1m in 2015. It is anticipated that with the renewed focus on training under the programme that the budget will be fully expended in 2015.

The training budget is allocated across the Department’s thirteen divisions. A level of flexibility applies in the allocation of training costs per CE participant. Flexibility can be applied to exceed the average rate per place within a scheme and between schemes, once the overall divisional budget is not exceeded. Flexibility has been applied across divisions, for example, where a participant’s training is leading to a Major Award in Childcare or in Health and Social Care.

In allocating the budget to schemes, the Department also take into consideration whether the training can be provided by the Education and Training Boards (ETBs) at no additional cost to the scheme. In this context, it should be noted that approximately 4,000 components of learning were accessed by CE participants in 2014 through the ETBs, the majority of which were accredited.