Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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340. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if an extension of employment will be facilitated for participants in community employment schemes in which sponsors are anxious that they continue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16018/19]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Community Employment (CE) is a positive initiative that enables the long-term unemployed to make a contribution to their communities whilst up-skilling themselves for prospective future employment.  It helps to break the cycle of unemployment and improve a person’s chances of returning to the labour market. 

The CE scheme has a budget to support around 21,600 participant places in 2019.  At the end of March, there was a total of 21,470 participants on the scheme.  This leaves a total of 130 budgeted vacancies this year.

CE schemes are typically sponsored by groups wishing to benefit the local community.  My Department agrees participant numbers annually with each CE sponsor organisation who are responsible for the recruitment of participants and for identifying suitable work placements.

CE sponsors can promote their scheme vacancies within their local communities.  Various methods of promoting CE have also been arranged between my Department and local schemes, including targeting potentially eligible jobseekers to attend CE Job-fairs, where details of CE vacancies and employment opportunities are provided. In addition, CE sponsors can advertise their vacancies free of charge on the Department's JobsIreland website, www.jobsireland.ie.  The process of posting vacancies is relatively straightforward and a tailored video is available online to assist sponsors. 

A number of changes to the terms and conditions of participation on CE was introduced in 2017.  The main purpose of these changes was 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.  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 2018, I am also facilitating persons to take up a placement on CE while also attending their JobPath provider.  The overall limit of participation on CE is 6 years from 1st January 2007 (7 years if on a disability payment).

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.  

While participation on CE is a stepping stone back to employment, these positions are not full-time sustainable jobs.  Nevertheless, I am fully committed to the future of community employment schemes , and I want to see them sustained. 

The Government agreed to establish an Interdepartmental Group (IDG) to explore the most appropriate organisational arrangements, in particular in respect of CE schemes whose primary focus is social inclusion and the delivery of social services.  The first meeting of the IDG was held last week and it is expected that the Group will report to Cabinet by end of Q2 2019.

Any CE sponsor organisation who has recruitment concerns should contact their nearest Intreo Centre who will provide assistance.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.