Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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531. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the change in rules that allows persons on JobPath to take up places on community employment and Tús schemes extends also to the RSS and CSP schemes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20883/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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JobPath is one of a range of activation supports, including employment schemes such as Community Employment (CE) and Tús, catering for unemployed jobseekers.

As the Deputy is aware, the rural social scheme (RSS) provides an income support payment to low income farmers and fishermen while they undertake certain services of benefit to rural communities.

The Community Services Programme (CSP) funding is primarily intended to contribute towards the costs of employing full-time equivalent workers, and in some cases, a contribution towards the cost of employing a manager to deliver services by community based not-for-profit enterprises across the State.

From June 2018. jobseekers referred to JobPath will be able to apply for CE and Tús placements while continuing their engagement with JobPath. As the current selection process for JobPath excludes those jobseekers categorised as self-employed including those actively farming or fishing, those eligible for RSS should not be impacted by this change once my Department is aware of their farming and fishing activities. While attending the JobPath service provider, it is open to a jobseeker to apply for any part-time or full-time employment including employment supported by CSP.