Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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404. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her Department will immediately arrange a date to meet the WRC in relation to the pay claim that community employment supervisors and assistant supervisors have submitted through their respective unions; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that there have been no wage increases for these workers since 2008 and in view of the substantial increases in cost-of-living, these workers need an urgent wage increase; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3171/23]

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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405. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the engagement she has had with Department officials to resolve the issue of pay increases for community employment supervisors and assistant supervisors; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3186/23]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 404 and 405 together.

Firstly, I wish to acknowledge the valuable and dedicated service that CE supervisors/assistant supervisors provide in running CE schemes in delivering local based community services while providing a valuable training and development opportunity to the long-term unemployed and to those often furthest removed from the labour market.

CE supervisors and assistant supervisors are employees of individual CE schemes, which are funded by the Department. The Department is not the employer of this group of workers. It is role as funder of CE, my Department regularly meets with unions representing CE supervisors and assistant supervisors to discuss issues of common concern.

As the funder of CE schemes, the Department received correspondence last year from Fórsa and SIPTU seeking a pay increase for CE supervisors and assistant supervisors. Fórsa and SIPTU subsequently referred this pay claim to the conciliation service of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The WRC issued an invite to the Department to take part in a conciliation process in December 2022. Following Government approval, the Department responded to the WRC indicating that it will engage with a WRC conciliation process, in its role as funder of these schemes. While the organisation and timing of the conciliation process is a matter for the WRC, it is expected that the process will commence in the early days of February.

Any increase in pay rates that would potentially increase the overall cost to the state of funding schemes, or state funded activities in the wider community and voluntary sector, must take into consideration the potential cost to the exchequer. Given these budgetary implications, and the possible referral of other similar claims to the WRC, the Department will also continue to engage with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform during the WRC process. If there are budgetary implications arising from the WRC process - these will need Government approval.

Minister Humphreys and I are fully committed to the future of CE and will continue to support and improve CE for the benefit of the supervisors and participants, given the valuable contribution being made to local communities through the provision of services.

I trust this clarifies the matters.