The Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys has announced major reforms to Community Employment (CE) and the Rural Social Scheme (RSS).
The schemes support local services such as childcare, meals on wheels and the maintenance of local amenities across the country.
CE schemes support long-term unemployed people to access work experience and training to help them secure a job.
Some 850 CE schemes are in operation delivering a wide range of key community services, particularly in disadvantaged and rural areas.
There are over 19,000 people availing of CE, which has a budget of €340 million this year.
The RSS is an income support scheme that provides part-time employment opportunities for farmers who receive specific social welfare payments.
There are almost 3,000 people availing of RSS at present, with a budget of €52 million for 2021.
Community employment
A series of reforms to both schemes have been announced by government including:
- Participants over 60 can now remain on CE and RSS until retirement;
- CE Schemes will be allowed to retain current participants until replacements are found;
- The amount of referrals to both schemes is to be significantly ramped up in 2022.
Minister Humphreys said that a minimum of 40% of unemployed people referred to schemes by the department’s Intreo offices will be offered an opportunity to take up places on schemes.
The minister said that allowing a participant to remain on the scheme after their term has expired until a replacement is found will reduce the impact of vacancies on the scheme and ensure vital community services are maintained.
The reforms will also see the baseline year used as a reference for the schemes updated from 2007 to 2014; this will now be updated on a yearly basis to stay seven years behind the current calendar year.
This means that time spent on CE before the baseline year will not count towards the maximum time a participant can spend on the scheme.
“I have long been of the view that programmes like CE cannot be viewed solely as a job activation measure, there are also huge societal benefits from the good work carried out in local communities by these schemes,” Minister Humphreys said.
Independent TD for Galway, Sean Canney said that the reforms are welcome and will bring certainty to participants, especially now that those over the age of 60 can remain on the schemes until they retire.