Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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114. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the position regarding community employment supervisors and their outstanding claim for a pension scheme. [16329/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be 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). A detailed scoping exercise was undertaken in 2017 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).