Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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117. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will consider changing the rules around community employment workers who currently are not entitled to the winter fuel allowance, as this may provide a bigger incentive to recruit more participants to schemes, which play a vital role in so many communities across the country. [39552/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Fuel Allowance is a payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €924 each year) from late September to April, at an estimated cost of €382 million in 2024. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs. Only one allowance is paid per household.

The criteria for Fuel Allowance are framed in order to direct the limited resources available to my Department in as targeted a manner as possible. To qualify for the Fuel Allowance payment, a person must satisfy all the qualifying criteria including a means test and the household composition criteria.

I recently announced that for the current Fuel Allowance season, the period a person spends on a Community Employment Scheme, Rural Social Scheme or Tús can be counted when assessing if a person satisfies the qualifying period criterion for Fuel Allowance purposes.

Therefore, claimants who move to these Employment Support Schemes who were previously in receipt of short-term Jobseeker’s Allowance or Basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance can accrue entitlement to Fuel Allowance while on the scheme.

This measure will benefit those that leave a qualifying social welfare payment to engage in an Employment Support Scheme.

Furthermore, those who move onto a qualifying social welfare payment for Fuel Allowance such as Jobseekers Allowance or Basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance, following completion of these Employment Support Schemes, will also be able to use the period spent on the Employment Support Scheme to satisfy the payment period requirement.

Any decision to allow all those who participate on a Community Employment Scheme to qualify for Fuel Allowance would fundamentally change the targeted nature of the scheme and can only be considered while taking account of the overall policy and budgetary situation.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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118. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if community employment sponsors must set aside reserve funds to cover redundancy payments, whether statutory or enhanced, as a contingency in the event of the project becoming insolvent; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39567/24]

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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119. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her Department assesses the financial viability of CE sponsors to cover redundancy costs before signing annual contracts with the sponsor; if not, the reason; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39568/24]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 118 and 119 together.

Schemes such as Community Employment (CE) are positive initiatives that enable the long-term unemployed to make a contribution to their communities while up-skilling themselves for prospective future employment.  The Department of Social Protection funds CE, which is delivered by independent sponsor organisations.  As such, supervisors employed on CE schemes are employees of the individual companies.

Where a sponsor organisation takes a decision to cease operations, an issue of redundancy may arise in relation to any supervisor employed.  Where the CE sponsor organisation, as an employer, does not have the funds to pay statutory redundancy, they can submit an application on their employee’s behalf to the Department for payment to be made through the Redundancy Payment Scheme.

The Department is not the employer of CE supervisors and payment of redundancy over and above the statutory requirement is a matter for the employer, which in this instance is the CE sponsor.  Generally, where CE schemes close, every effort is made to maintain services through amalgamation with other schemes with employment maintained for CE supervisors and places protected for participants.  This minimises the need for redundancy, but where a redundancy arises, it is an issue for the employer to resolve. 

It is important to note that while DSP is a funder of CE schemes, it does not employ supervisors or participants and has no role in appointing board members to the sponsoring organisations.  It is expected that all board members should be aware of their legal and fiduciary responsibilities in relation to the operation and windup of the companies which they oversee.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the deputy.