Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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156. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will meet with a group (details supplied) in the context of discussing the implementation of a pension scheme for community employment supervisors; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17739/19]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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This issue relates to a claim by community employment supervisors and assistant supervisorswho have been seeking, through their union representatives, the allocation of Exchequer funding to implement a 2008 Labour Court recommendation relating to the provision of a pension scheme.

The matter was the subject of detailed discussion at the Community Sector High Level Forum which was reconvened to examine certain issues pertaining to the Community Employment sector and in particular to ensure that the matter of pension provision was fully examined having regard to Exchequer costs and precedent.

A detailed scoping exercise was carried out by my Department in 2017 in order to comprehensively examine and assess the full potential implications of the issues under consideration.

The scoping exercise clearly illustrated that this matter presents very significant issues for the Exchequer, with a potential cost to the State of between €188 million per annum and €347m depending on the size of the sector which is difficult to ascertain, in respect of funding to enable an employer pension contribution among all similar State funded Community and Voluntary organisations. This excludes any provision for immediate ex-gratia lump sum payment of pension as sought, which could, depending on the size of the sector, entail a further Exchequer cost of up to €318 million.

The Forum met in the period subsequent to the conduct of this scoping exercise where relevant matters in respect of this issue were discussed in comprehensive detail with the members of the Forum. These discussions provided a clear understanding to each of the parties of their respective positions in relation to this matter and in this context the formal engagement process between the parties was accordingly concluded on this basis.