Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 March 2021
971. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for 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]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe 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.
