Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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733. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to provide pensions for community employment supervisors as recommended by the Workplace Relations Commission some years ago; the reason for the delay in resolving this issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15183/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As you are aware, Community Employment (CE) supervisors and assistant supervisors have been seeking for several years, through their union representatives, the allocation of Exchequer funding to implement a 2008 Labour Court recommendation relating to the provision of a pension scheme.

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 Labour Court recommendation 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.

Officials from my Department met with the unions thereafter to establish a process for related discussions and to agree on the terms of reference. During the meetings that followed, the parties undertook a detailed analysis of a number of potential solutions tabled, mindful of the broader environment in which any solution found would need to operate.

Related discussions also took place between officials from my Department and their counterparts in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER).