Education Minister and Kerry TD Norma Foley has welcomed the announcement of a number of significant reforms to Community Employment, Tús and the Rural Social Scheme (RSS).
The following changes include: Removal of the six-year time limit for all participants on the Rural Social Scheme; Eligibility for Tús extended to persons in receipt of Disability Payments;
New flexibility to allow CE schemes to directly recruit eligible candidates to fill 30% of places;
Intreo to significantly increase the number of referrals to CE with schemes required to offer places to at least 60% of candidates referred; New Pilot Scheme to extend eligibility to Qualified Adults to be explored; Continue to allow schemes to extend individual placements and retain existing participants in cases where no replacement candidate has been selected.
19,000 Participants on CE
This means that local services should not be impacted due to an inability to replace participants.
The purpose of CE and Tús is to provide long term unemployed participants with work experience in their local communities to help them find employment.
There are currently over 19,000 participants on CE, almost 5,000 participants on Tús and just under 3,000 participants on the Rural Social Scheme nationally.
Government investment in the three schemes will amount to over €500million in 2022.
Further Security and Supports
Minister Foley said that she welcomes the positive initiatives announced by her Government colleagues Minister Humphreys and Minister O’Brien.
“These significant reforms will provide further security and targeted supports to those social scheme workers who continue to provide vital services in areas such as childcare, meals on wheels, the maintenance and upkeep of local amenities and other key services across the county,” she said.
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