Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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970. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her views on altering the requirements to qualify for the community employment programme from 12 months on the relevant payments to six months to enable more persons to be eligible; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14328/21]

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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1047. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her views on expanding the eligibility criteria for the community employment programme from persons living on one of the offshore islands and currently receiving a community employment qualifying payment for six months or more to persons living on one of the offshore islands, peninsulas or other rural areas more than 20 km from a large town; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15941/21]

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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1048. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the steps she is taking to develop and enhance the community employment programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15942/21]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 970, 1047 and 1048 together.

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.  Those who are unemployed and in receipt of an eligible payment for 12 months or more, are long-term unemployed.  Currently there are over 80,000 persons on the Live Register for more than twelve months. CE is a targeted employment support scheme specifically designed to assist those at most remove from the labour market back to employment, including the long term unemployed.

Altering the eligibility criteria in the manner suggested by the Deputy would reduce the number of employment support places available for persons who are facing greatest difficulty in returning to employment.

As the Deputy has noted there is wider of eligibility criteria for inhabitants of offshore islands including the requirement to only have been in receipt of a CE-qualifying payment for 6 months as opposed to 12 months prior to availing of CE.  There are no plans to extend the offshore island exemption to other areas, or to reduce the eligibility criteria for the scheme in general.  As outlined above any widening of eligibility criteria would reduce the number of places available for persons further removed from the labour market.

Since the start of the Covid-19 emergency, my Department has focussed its attention on ensuring that contingency measures were in place to support existing CE schemes during the various levels of public health restrictions. This included extending CE participant contracts that were due to finish during periods of Level-5 restrictions.  On 2nd March, 2021 Minister Humphreys and I announced that participant contract end dates will be further extended until 2nd July 2021. This will benefit approximately 7,000 employment support scheme participants. When it is time for the participants to leave their schemes, this will be coordinated with the scheme sponsors on a phased basis and over a number of months.

The Deputy may be aware that Minister Humphreys and I held an online meeting recently with CE sponsoring authority representatives.  Following on from this meeting, on 2nd March 2021, Minister Humphreys and I announced a new operational forum for CE and Tús sponsors and officials from the Department of Social Protection.  The purpose of the forum is to facilitate discussions on operational matters.  This will include proposals to further develop and maximise the contribution of CE and Tús schemes in assisting long term unemployed people back to work, while delivering valuable services to local communities.

As part of the July 2020 Stimulus Package, the Government announced 3,000 additional places on Employment Support Schemes, including Community Employment.  The Department is working closely with stakeholders at present to identify ways in which these opportunities can be made available to the long-term unemployed and those furthest removed from the labour market.

As always, my Department will continue to monitor scheme activity and potential amendments to the supports provided to ensure CE continues to deliver for both long term unemployed persons and in providing vital services to local communities.

I trust this clarifies matters.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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971. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her views on extending the employment of all persons in the community employment programme until at least 31 December 2021 given the difficulty in replacing persons during the Covid-19 pandemic; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14329/21]

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.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department has introduced a number of contingency measures, including extending CE participant contracts that were due to finish during Level-5 periods of public health restrictions.  The most recent contract extensions applies to all contracts that were due to come to an end since last October, 2020.   Earlier this month, Minister Humphreys and I announced  that participant contract end dates would be further extended until 2nd July 2021.

These latest extensions will be of direct benefit to approximately 7,000 employment support scheme participants whose contracts would be due to end since last October.  When it is time for those participants to leave their schemes, after the 2nd July next,  this will arranged in a co-ordinated phased basis over a number of months,  in conjunction with the CE sponsoring authorities.

It is not proposed to further-extend the latest end date  until the 31st December, 2021 at this juncture. Contract extension dates will continue to be monitored in line with Government public health restrictions in place over the coming months. At the same time, I need to ensure that CE places are available for the incoming cohort of long term unemployed, once we start to move beyond COVID public health restrictions.  

I am aware of the CE recruitment challenges arising from the current restrictions which has had an impact on the ability of some CE schemes to recruit new CE participants and on Intreo activation staff in referring new participants to schemes.  My Department officials both centrally and in local Intreo Centers continue to work with CE sponsoring authorities to identify and refer potential CE participants to CE schemes where the CE placement is active and where it is safe to do so.  The numbers of referrals and placements to CE schemes will increase over the coming months as and when public health restrictions begin to ease. CE places must continue to be available to support those who are now long-term unemployed and furthest removed from the labour market, to maintain the role of CE as an active labour market programme and to provide opportunities for the maximum number of new participants.  

The priority for this Department is to ensure that all employment and activation programmes have the best outcomes for participants,

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.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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972. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of persons employed under the community employment programme who have not received any of the training her Department is obliged to provide; if their participation will be extended by one year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14330/21]

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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1043. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her views on expanding the range of training available to participants in the community employment programme to enable greater chances of future employment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15937/21]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 972 and 1043 together.

The aim of the Community Employment (CE) programme is to enhance the employability of long term  unemployed persons by providing work experience and training opportunities for them within their communities on a temporary fixed term basis.  Its objective is to help long-term unemployed people to re-enter the active workforce.

The challenges caused by the Covid-19 public health restrictions introduced over the course of the last year, has impacted CE schemes and the services they provide.  My Department has continued to provide support to CE schemes during this period, including extending the contracts of participants whose contracts were due to come to an end during periods of Level 5 public health restrictions.  Over 7,000 participants are benefiting from the most recent contract extension that applies up to the 2nd July.  Contracts will only come to an end on a phased and coordinated manner after that date.  These existing extensions will provide some additional opportunities for participants to undertake training, subject to public health restrictions in place over the coming months. In addition some CE participant training has continued online during Level-5 restrictions

It is not the Department's intention to issue a one year extension to all CE participants at the current time, as we need to ensure that places are available for the incoming cohort of long term unemployed.  However the Department will continue to monitor the employment support schemes over the remaining period of restrictions.

Each CE participant must have an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) where training needs/options are identified.  A CE participant may avail of any approved training that has been identified on their ILP.  There are a range of recognised QQI Awards and qualifications available to CE participants.

A CE participant aged between 21 and 55 must be working towards a QQI Award on the NFQ Framework of Qualifications or an industry equivalent, in order to be eligible for up to 2 additional years on CE.   If a CE participant is aged 55 or over, they are not required to undertake QQI-related training in order to avail of the two additional years on CE.  However, those CE participants may opt to undertake available training and development and they will also be supported with any issues they have in accessing employment.

If there is particular piece of training that the Deputy is referring to that has not been made available within the wide range of training for participants, please bring it to the attention of my Department officials and it will be followed up on.

Where a CE participant finishes up on their CE scheme and has not completed the planned training outlined in their ILP, and if unfortunately they remain unemployed, they will be able to continue their development through other training supports provided by my Department such as the Training Support Grant (TSG) and the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA).   They should engage with their local Intreo office to explore the continuation of their training.  This will be coordinated by the Department’s case officers who will engage with the former CE participant to discuss the available options.  However, no CE participant contract will come to an end before the 2nd July next.

The priority for my Department is to ensure that all employment and activation programmes have the best outcomes for participants.   

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