Community Employment Schemes
Dail Éireann — 2021-03-04
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Joe O'Brien (GP), Dublin Fingal

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Community employment 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 pandemic, we have approved the extension of CE participant contracts that would have come to an end during level 5 restrictions on a number of occasions. To date, more than 5,000 community employment and Tús participants have benefited from these arrangements. These participants will now benefit from a further extension up to 2 July. This will benefit an additional 2,000 CE and Tús participants whose contract would otherwise end between now and the start of July. I reassure the Deputy and the community employment scheme in Skibbereen that these contracts will not suddenly end on the final date of extensions, whenever that will be. Subsequent to the final extension date, there will be a planned ending of contracts on a phased basis and over a period of time to ensure continuity of local services. Department officials will work on the ground with CE schemes to support them in managing this process.
We also announced on Tuesday that a new forum comprising representatives of community employment and Tús schemes and officials from the Department of Social Protection will be established shortly. The purpose of the forum is to discuss and exchange views on operational issues impacting on both schemes. These recent changes that have been announced will mean the schemes in Skibbereen will not have any participants exiting until 2 July at the earliest. One participant employed in one of the two CE schemes in Skibbereen will also benefit from the changes announced for those affected by the 2017 rule change.
The Minister and I are fully committed to the future of this programme, as is evidenced by the announcement of 3,000 additional CE places. We also secured approval to support community employment and Tús schemes as part of the July stimulus package. We will continue to support and improve the programme for the benefit of CE participants and the valuable contribution being made to local communities through the provision of services.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2021-03-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-03-04