Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

271. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he is aware that funding is being withdrawn from community employment schemes for supervisors reaching 66 years of age and thereby forcing supervisors into retirement when there is no legal retirement age here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18178/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

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 currently have no plans to change these arrangements.