Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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307. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will give consideration to removing the year 2000 rule to community employment schemes, which is proving to be a barrier to recruitment. [11447/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, I brought a Memo to Government last week and obtained approval to publish my Department’s review report on CE and the other work schemes, and to progress the various changes that were recommended. I will be publishing the review report shortly.

The changes proposed to the Community Employment (CE) scheme include moving the reference year. Currently participation on CE prior to the 3^rdApril 2000 is not counted. It is proposed to move this reference date to 1^stJanuary 2007. This will mean, when it is implemented, that more people will be able to avail of CE schemes as they will not have reached their maximum duration as any time on a scheme prior to 2007 will not be counted.

As part of the roll out of the new measures, my Department will consult with key stakeholders in the coming weeks and implementation of the new measures will be progressed subsequently.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.