Written answers

Tuesday, 28 June 2016

Department of Social Protection

Community Employment Schemes Supervisors

Photo of Mary ButlerMary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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242. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he is aware that supervisors working on community employment schemes reaching 66 years of age are being forced to retire from their jobs as funding for their salaries is being withdrawn when in fact there is no legal retirement age here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18176/16]

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Community Employment (CE) is a non-statutory scheme put in place to support persons who are long-term unemployed and other vulnerable groups to gain the confidence and skills to re-enter the labour market. Schemes are sponsored by local community and voluntary groups who provide valuable support services to local communities. These sponsoring organisations employ supervisory staff to administer the scheme.

Funding is provided by the Department to the sponsoring organisations for the employment of staff up to state pension age. Once the staff member reaches state pension age (currently 66 years of age), that person can no longer be funded under CE. This is a long-established procedure which sponsoring organisations have signed up to as part of their contractual arrangement with the Department and it is applied equally across all schemes participating on CE. I have no current plans to change these arrangements.

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