Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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110. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection how many community employment schemes and how many places on these schemes are available in counties Galway and Mayo; the average cost of providing one place on a CE scheme for a person over 55 years of age; the equivalent cost of providing social protection for that same person; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1995/16]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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There are 71 Community Employment (CE) Schemes with 1,479 places in Galway, and 37 CE schemes with 849 places in Mayo as at 14 January 2015.

The average annual cost of a CE place for one year, including income support and all other costs such as training fees, material costs and Supervision is approximately €15,000.

The average annual payment value for jobseeker's allowance (JA) for 2015 is just over €10,200.

CE has a standard minimum rate of payment of €210.50 per week while jobseeker’s allowance has a means assessment and the rate received will depend on the relevant means assessed against the payment.

As there are different rules applying to CE and JA payments, it is not possible to provide an exact equivalent cost without having a specific case to compare.