Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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1899. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his plans to improve the local community employment schemes in order to make them more attractive to engage social welfare recipients. [44393/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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At the outset, I want to acknowledge the excellent work that is done on Community Employment (CE) and the contribution that these schemes and their workers make to communities across the country. I have been hugely impressed by the range and value of the work undertaken on these schemes, some of which I have had the opportunity to visit and witness at first hand.

The aim of CE is to enhance the employability of disadvantaged and long-term unemployed people by providing valuable work experience and training opportunities for them within their local communities on a temporary fixed term basis as a stepping stone to employment in the open labour market. In addition, CE also supports important and, in many cases, essential local community services.

The OECD in a recently published review of the CE and Tús schemes found a positive impact on the employment and earnings of participants, especially for older participants on CE and younger participants on Tús. The review also found that participants are less likely to rely on disability payments and are more likely to find employment after their participation.

CE projects are in diverse areas and include the development, regeneration and enhancement of community spaces, environmental maintenance, early years, and after-school supports, heritage, arts, culture, tourism, sport, recycling and repair of equipment, visitation, friendly call, and befriending programmes for older people.

There are currently 19,618 participants and 1,217 Supervisors on 809 CE schemes. Government investment in CE will amount to nearly €370 million in 2025.

Given the strong labour market performance the number of unemployed people dependent on social welfare payments continues to fall. While this is very welcome. it also means that the number of candidates available for CE is reduced thereby creating a challenging recruitment environment. However, working together with CE sponsors scheme changes have been made to increase participation which will help schemes continue to support their local communities.

These changes include:

• A provision to allow CE participants who reach 60 years of age to remain in CE until they reach state pension age.
• Some flexibility granted to CE sponsors to retain existing participants for extended periods in cases where a replacement can’t be recruited immediately.
• Changes to eligibility criteria extending CE eligibility to the adult dependents of those in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance.
• A pilot scheme to extend CE eligibility to those over 50 years of age who are signing for credits only.

I can assure the Deputy that the eligibility criteria, the duration timelines for participation and the referral process for CE continues to be kept under active review by my Department.