Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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471. To ask the Minister for Social Protection to outline the changes to the most recent operation manual for community services programmes, dated 4 April 2016 Version 1, in particular, the stipulation that working hours must be spread over four days, resulting in new entrants of the programme no longer being able to claim jobseeker's allowance; if he has considered the adverse effects this may have on persons wishing to participate in the programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22851/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Community Services Programme (CSP) provides financial support to community companies that provide revenue generating services of a social inclusion nature. Many of these companies are also funded from other sources and generate revenue from the public use of their facilities and services.

A total of 404 service providers are supported under the CSP to provide local social, economic and environmental services through the application of a social enterprise model of delivery.

The CSP aims to create sustainable jobs for those most distant from the labour market, in particular, for those who are long-term unemployed and from specific target groups. It provides a co-funding contribution to service providers to employ a manager and/or full-time equivalents (FTEs) to help deliver the objectives of the community service. The focus here is on service delivery to disadvantaged communities and target groups. Employees are recruited from the labour market subject to the service provider meeting certain programme requirements.

The CSP enables the creation of paid employment positions and is not a welfare payment, or an add-on to a welfare payment. This approach sets the programme apart from other public funding sources and reflects the social enterprise ethos of the programme.

The Department encourages service providers to use the CSP contribution to recruit staff on a full-time basis to prevent a scenario whereby the Department is contributing to the cost of employment of an individual and also making a payment to that same individual via Jobseekers Allowance. Services which have joined the CSP since 2015 are required to ensure that their CSP funded employees work a minimum of 30 hours across 4 days each week and additional FTEs allocated to any service in the programme must also adhere to this requirement.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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472. To ask the Minister for Social Protection to discuss the expectation of community services programmes to pay market rates and the living wage where possible, given that his Department's contribution to CSPs no longer matches the legal minimum wage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22852/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Community Services Programme (CSP) provides financial support to community companies that provide revenue generating services of a social inclusion nature. Many of these companies are also funded from other sources and generate revenue from the public use of their facilities and services.

A total of 404 service providers are supported under the CSP to provide local social, economic and environmental services through the application of a social enterprise model of delivery. The Department estimates that, at the end of 2015, 60% of the employees of these companies were being paid above the level of the minimum wage, in keeping with the social inclusion and social benefit objectives of the programme. The Deputy should note that the CSP accounts for less than a third of the resources generated by these companies.

The Department is committed to working with the remaining companies to achieve the objective of paying a reasonable wage. A process has been put in place to assist and support existing funded companies who are not in a position to cover the increase in the minimum wage for 2016.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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473. To ask the Minister for Social Protection when successful applicants for the community services programme support fund will receive funding; if he is aware that they have been obliged to pay the new national minimum wage rate since the 1 January 2016, incurring significant additional costs and placing many under considerable financial strain; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22853/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Community Services Programme (CSP) provides financial support to community companies that provide revenue generating services of a social inclusion nature. Many of these companies are also funded from other sources and generate revenue from the public use of their facilities and services.

A process has been put in place to assist and support existing funded companies who are not in a position to cover the increase in the minimum wage. The aim of this funding is to support existing service providers under the CSP to enhance their sustainability as social enterprises. Allocations for this funding are additional to the CSP contribution that service providers currently receive.

To date, a total of 108 applicants have successfully applied for support under the Fund and have been issued with contract addendums with return dates of 19 July. Once the addendums have been signed and returned to Pobal, successful applicants will receive 75% of their annual award with the remaining balance paid in line with normal payment processes.

I hope this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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474. To ask the Minister for Social Protection to set out the estimated full-year cost to the State in 2017 of increasing the wage contribution to the community services programme to match the new national legal minimum wage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22854/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Community Services Programme (CSP) provides financial support to community companies that provide revenue generating services of a social inclusion nature. Many of these companies are also funded from other sources and generate revenue from the public use of their facilities and services.

By increasing the CSP contribution to match the new minimum wage, the additional programme cost would be approximately €1.9 m in 2017. The funding provided to service providers under CSP is expressed as a fixed annual co-funding contribution towards the costs of employing a manager or a specified number of full-time equivalent positions. The rate of CSP contribution is not aligned to the minimum wage rate of payment. A process has been put in place to assist and support existing funded companies who are not in a position to cover the increase in the minimum wage for 2016.