Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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48. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to change the eligibility criteria for community employment schemes. [18479/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, 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 employment opportunities that will become available.  The scheme can play an important role in breaking the cycle of long-term unemployment for some people and improve their chances of employment.  

In order to qualify for CE, a number of conditions, including age and being in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment for a specific period, must be met.  The focus of CE is on the cohort of long-term unemployed people and the programme is monitored on an on-going basis to ensure that the schemes are meeting the needs of communities and jobseekers.

A number of new conditions were introduced on CE in July 2017 to further support progression and broaden access to CE to a wider range of people.  There are no plans to change the eligibility criteria of CE at this juncture.