Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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533. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a decision has been made on a community employment scheme extension appeal by a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26326/20]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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The person concerned has completed his quota for time allowed on a  CE Scheme. He completed 6 years on the CE Scheme which is the maximum allowed for him.  The person concerned did have his eligible time on CE reviewed but unfortunately he had completed 6 years on 21th August 2020.

The aim of the CE programme is to enhance the employability of disadvantaged and unemployed people by providing work experience and training opportunities for them within their communities. The programme helps break the cycle of unemployment and improve a person’s chances of returning to the labour market. Participation on CE is intended to be for a temporary fixed-term. These placements are not full-time jobs. There are participation limits in place to ensure that as many unemployed people as possible are able to benefit from CE.

The person concerned will be 62 years in June 2021 and under the Service Support Stream (SSS) participants aged 62 years and over may reapply to participate on CE up to the State pension age subject to availability of places on the SSS, satisfactory performance on the project, the agreement of the sponsoring organisation and approval by the Department (as SSS places are subject to limitation and limited to 10% of participants per individual CE project). The person concerned could therefore enquire with the Community Employment (CE) project in relation to the Service Support Stream (SSS) option in June 2021.

 I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy.