David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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484. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if, further to commitments made at a meeting of the high level forum for the community and voluntary sector in April 2017, she has communicated to the Workplace Relations Commission the position regarding attendance at the WRC; if not, the reason; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13794/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The matter of Community Employment (CE) Supervisor pension claim following the 2008 Labour Court Recommendation 19293 was the subject of an extensive discussion at the Community Sector High-level Forum, chaired by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER). Its role was to examine certain issues pertaining to the Community Employment sector and in particular the subject of pensions, having regard to both the costs and precedent in the context of the wider community and voluntary sector. The High-level Forum included representatives from public service management and union officials.

A detailed scoping exercise was undertaken in 2017 with input from the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES) on the potential costs of providing Exchequer support for the establishment of such a pension scheme for employees across the Community and Voluntary sector in Ireland. The potential cost to the State was estimated at between €188 million and €347 million per annum depending on the numbers involved. This excludes any provision for immediate ex-gratia lump sum payment of pension as sought, which could entail a further cost of €318 million to the Exchequer.

It should be noted that CE sponsoring authorities are the legal employers of their CE supervisors, CE assistant supervisors and CE participants, the Department’s role continues to be that of CE funder. The Department was not a party to the Labour Court hearing in 2008 which was between ‘various community employment schemes’ - funded by Fás and the ‘Irish Municipal, Public and Civil Trade Union & Services Industrial Professional Technical Union’. The Labour Court recommended that Fás, as the recognised funding agency should fund the pension provision. The Department has therefore no basis or requirement to inform the WRC further on the matter.