Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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122. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if changes will be made to allow persons between 66 and 70 years of age to enter community employment schemes given that the optional retirement age has recently been extended. [58181/22]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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The Community Employment Scheme (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.

The programme is delivered through independent CE sponsor organisations that receive state funding from the department to cover certain costs including CE participant wages.

CE is a working age activation scheme and CE participants who continue to be funded through CE must be of working age. As a consequence, funding for CE participants is provided up until a CE participant reaches the state pension age.

As the Deputy is aware, in response to the recommendations from the Commission on Pensions, a set of new pension measures were approved by Cabinet back in September of this year.

The set of reforms agreed include maintaining the state pension age at 66, introducing a new flexible pension age model which will mean that from January 2024 people will have the option to continue working up until the age of 70 in return for a higher pension.

However, as the Deputy will appreciate, any extension to participation on CE beyond the State Pension age could significantly impact on the opportunities for those who are long-term unemployed and could undermine CE as an active labour market programme.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.