Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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2096. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the status of the pilot programme that was launched in January 2016 which allowed those that had reached 62 years of age to participate on a community employment scheme on a continuous basis until they reach State pension age; the estimated full year cost of rolling this out nationwide and lowering the age to 60 years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28701/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Community Employment (CE) is a labour market activation programme which helps long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged groups to re-enter the active workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to work routine. It is designed to be a temporary fixed-term activation intervention. The programme assists participants to enhance and develop their skills, competencies and confidence to enable them to compete for jobs in the open market.

The pilot initiative announced in December 2015 is still in operation. This initiative enables those aged 62 or over to extend their participation beyond the standard maximum participation limits, providing the eligibility conditions are met. Participants are allowed to participate on a continuous basis up to the State Pension age, subject to satisfactory performance on the scheme and to annual approval by the Department. The places allocated for these participants within each individual CE scheme are limited to 7% of each scheme’s overall budgeted places. This pilot scheme is currently available nationwide.

As the Deputy will be aware, participation limits are necessary to allow for the utilisation of places amongst qualifying persons to ensure the benefits of CE are available to the widest possible number of jobseekers. The overall cost of CE reflects the number of places available and is not related to the age of the participants. The turnover of places allows the programme to maximise access to the opportunities provided by CE, such as valuable work experience, accredited training, etc.

Following the publication earlier this year of my Department’s Report - An Analysis of the Community Employment Programme -the Government approved a number of changes to the terms and conditions of participation on CE. At the time of publication, it was also signalled that a review of the rules governing the participation of older people on schemes would take place and I expect this review to be completed in the early autumn.

In that context, my Department has been consulting with key stakeholders throughout the country during the last month and the feedback from these consultation sessions will help to inform the review and its work.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.