Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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531. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will meet with community employment supervisors or their representatives in respect of pension entitlements or payments that may accrue due to years of service. [24460/20]

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 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 are engaging with with CE supervisor union representatives on this issue. Discussions were also undertaken with my Department officials and their counterparts in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER). These are ongoing.