Written answers

Wednesday, 29 July 2020

Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection

Community Employment Schemes

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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65. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to address the pension needs of community employment scheme supervisors; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16786/20]

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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66. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she has met with community employment supervisors and or trade union representatives on the issue of their pension claim since her appointment as Minister; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19013/20]

Photo of Catherine ConnollyCatherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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68. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his plans in respect of the provision of pensions for community employment supervisors; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16767/20]

Photo of Claire KerraneClaire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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80. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to honour the 2008 Labour Court recommendation which stated that community employment supervisors should have access to a pension; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19005/20]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 65, 66, 68 and 80 together.

As the Deputies 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 issue was examined by a Community Sector High Level Forum, chaired by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.  A number of Departments including my own Department were represented on this group, as were the unions and Pobal. 

A detailed scoping exercise was carried out 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.  This exercise estimated a potential cost to the State of between €188 million and €347 million per annum depending on the numbers involved.  This excluded any provision for an immediate ex-gratia lump sum payment of pension as sought, which could entail a further Exchequer cost of up to €318 million. 

Officials from my Department held a series of meetings with CE supervisor representatives to consider related proposals, mindful of the operating environment in which any potential solution will need to exist.  Related discussions were also undertaken between Department officials and their counterparts in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER). 

My Department officials will continue to work with all parties to the discussions with a view to establishing a viable solution to this issue.

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