Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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261. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the criteria regarding the length of time that eligible participants can remain in the community employment, Tús and rural social schemes. [15481/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Programmes such as Community Employment, (CE), Tús and Rural Social Scheme (RSS) are designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged people with an opportunity to engage in part-time work and training within their communities on a temporary, fixed-term basis.

The pattern of participation on the CE programme is dependent on the individual circumstance of each person and the length of time s/he has been in receipt of a CE-qualifying social welfare payment. In general, a person must be 12 months or more in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment to be eligible for 1 year on CE. If a person is 3 years or more in receipt of a qualifying payment social welfare payment, and over 35 years, they are eligible for 3 consecutive year’s participation on CE.

In addition, lifetime participation on CE by an individual is currently limited to 3 years for persons under 55 years of age and 6 years for persons of 55 years of age up to State Pension age (inclusive of any time spent on CE while under 55).

Eligible persons who were in receipt of a CE-qualifying disability-linked social welfare payment will be eligible for one additional year on CE over the standard maximum participation caps, i.e. 4 years maximum time on CE for those under 55 years of age and 7 years maximum time for those between 55 years of age and State Pension age.

Eligible CE participants aged 62 or over are permitted to exceed the standard limits of participation detailed above.

A six year maximum participation limit on the scheme has been introduced for new participants in the Rural Social Scheme (RSS) commencing on or after 1st February, 2017. The six years can be continuous, provided the participant remains eligible for the underlying social welfare payment. The Deputy should note that existing RSS participants will remain on the scheme as long as they continue to satisfy the eligibility conditions of the scheme.

All Tús placements are limited to 12 months duration.

The current eligibility rules and maximum durations allowed for participants are quite varied in terms of the underlying age, duration and other terms and conditions that apply across the employment programmes. This makes it very difficult for potential participants to understand and also for the overall administration of the schemes. I intend in the coming weeks to publish some changes to the participation terms and conditions to make them easier to navigate and manage.

My Department will be also consulting with the various stakeholders about the changes in the coming weeks.

I trust that clarifies the matters for the Deputy.