Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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175. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will urgently review the community employment scheme eligibility criteria to address the nationwide recruitment crisis; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4735/21]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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The Community Employment (CE) Scheme is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis.

The challenges caused by the Covid-19 public health restrictions introduced over the course of last year, including with the most recent return to Level-5 restrictions, has had an impact on the ability of a number of CE schemes to recruit new CE participants.

Throughout the onset of the Covid-19 emergency since last March 2020 and the resultant public health restrictions, my Department has continued to provide funding and support for CE schemes. This includes the extension of CE participant contracts, when Level 5 restrictions are in place. Department officials have worked with CE sponsoring authorities throughout the three waves of the Covid-19 emergency to arrange for CE participants who were due to finish on their respective CE schemes during these period, to have their contracts extended while the level-5 restrictions are in place, unless a CE participant is taking up employment or reaches the State Pension age. The latest CE contract extension date for those affected is the 26th March, 2021. When it is time for those CE participants to leave their schemes, this will be scheduled on a gradual, phased basis over a period of a number of months in conjunction with the CE sponsoring authorities.

Department officials have continued to fill CE vacancies where it has been safe to do so and CE sponsoring authorities are continually encouraged to promote awareness of the benefits of CE in their local communities, ensuring that CE vacancies are well publicised. They are also able to advertise their vacancies on the Department's JobsIreland website www.jobsireland.ie.

Once the existing restrictions have been lifted and the country returns to normal business operations there will be a continued emphasis on identifying suitable candidates for available CE vacancies.

I am fully committed to the future of this programme and will continue to support and improve the programme for the benefit of the CE participants and the valuable contribution being made to local communities through the provision of services.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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176. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the recruitment shortfall in a service (details supplied); and the steps she plans to take to address this matter. [4736/21]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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Community Employment (CE) is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis.

Throughout the onset of the COVID-19 emergency in March 2020, the subsequent level 5 restrictions introduced in October 2020 and more recently, the return to level 5 restrictions announced by Government in December 2020, my Department has continued to provide the necessary funding for CE schemes while introducing other contingency measures, to support CE schemes and participants, including the extension of CE participant contracts.

Support Meals on Wheels Limited project provides a meals on wheels service in the Finglas area as well as assisting in the progression of participants into employment. The CE roles in this scheme are all for catering assistants. This scheme has not notified the Department of their vacancies via their weekly vacancy listings and now that it has been brought to our attention local CE Management will work with the scheme on making promotional videos as well as other methods that could be employed by the scheme to raise their profile in the community thus attracting interest in vacancies. It is expected that the number of referrals will increase as part of the recommencement of activation services once the Government has announced the return to normal business activity and a reduction in the current level 5 restrictions.

My Department is committed to supporting the CE sponsoring authorities in the valuable services that they deliver across communities through these particularly challenging times.

I trust this clarifies the matter.