Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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52. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will ensure that the contracts for new community employment supervisors will be of the same duration as existing contracts; and if he will address the situation regarding job security for these supervisors. [17453/17]

Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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86. To ask the Minister for Social Protection his plans regarding gratuity payments for community employment supervisors that have no pension entitlements; and if his officials will engage with the trade unions on this matter. [17454/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 52 and 86 together.

Community Employment (CE) Supervisors are employees of private companies in the community and voluntary sector. The period for which a CE Sponsor contracts with the Supervisor is, therefore, a matter between those two parties. In general, it is important that supervisor contracts reflect that the positions are subject to continued funding from the Department of Social Protection.

Supervisors (and participants) are excluded from the Section 9 provisions of the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 as they are “employees with a contract of employment which has been concluded within the framework of a specific public or publicly-supported training, integration or vocational retraining programme” under Section 2 of this Act. This means contracts for CE Supervisors cannot be of indefinite duration.

Given that CE Supervisors are employees of private companies in the community and voluntary sector, the State is not responsible for funding pension arrangements for such employees even where the companies in question are reliant on State funding. It is open to individual CE supervisors to make provision for a pension by way of PRSA which all employers are obliged to facilitate.

However, the Deputy should be aware that the issue of CE Supervisors’ pension provision is currently being looked at by a Community Sector High Level Forum which has been convened by the Department of Public Expenditure. My Department is represented on this group, as are IMPACT and SIPTU, the Department of Environment and Pobal. The Forum last met on 7 April, 2017 and I understand their work is ongoing.