Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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560. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her Department will facilitate an extension of employment for participants in community employment schemes in which sponsors are anxious that they continue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53842/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Community Employment (CE) programme is a community centred labour market initiative the aim of which is to help long-term unemployed people and other vulnerable groups to enter the workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a short term return-to-work routine. The programme assists participants to enhance and develop both their technical and personal skills, which can then be used in the workplace. Participation on CE is intended to be for a temporary fixed-term. There are participation time limits in place to ensure that as many unemployed people as possible are able to benefit from the scheme.

The Deputy will appreciate that the welcome increase in the number of people at work and the continued reduction in Live Register numbers is a factor in recruitment to all work programmes.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that I have implemented a number of changes to the terms and conditions of participation on CE. The main purpose of these changes is to broaden the availability to a greater number of people on the Live Register and to standardise other conditions around the length of time a person can participate on a programme.

The general qualifying age for CE for those on the Live Register was reduced from 25 to 21 years. It is now easier for previous participants, who have exhausted their CE entitlement, to re-qualify as participation prior to the year 2007 is disregarded. There is an overall limit of 6 years participation from 2007 (7 years if on a disability payment). While participants between 21 and 55 years on CE are entitled to one year on the programme, this can be extended by up to 2 more years if they are engaged in a recognised training or education award that is helping them progress towards employment. All CE participants age 55 and over can avail of 3 consecutive years on a CE scheme. Since 1st June, I am also facilitating persons to take up a placement on CE while also attending their JobPath provider.

Participants over age 62 are allowed to participate on a continuous basis up to the State Pension age on the CE Service Support Stream (SSS), subject to availability of places on the SSS, satisfactory performance on the scheme and to annual approval by the Department. The places allocated for these participants within each individual CE scheme are subject to limitation criteria.

The Government is very mindful of the large number of work programme places involved in service delivery and other valuable services around the country. In this regard if any scheme is experiencing particular recruitment difficulties, they should contact their local Department Intreo Centre for assistance.