Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 July 2025
405. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Social Protection his Department's total expenditure under the community employment scheme, by county, in each year of the programme’s existence; and the number of participating employees under the scheme by county, in each year of the programme’s existence, in tabular form. [40644/25]
View answer406. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of participants on the community employment scheme, by county, in each year of the programme’s existence; and the total funding allocated to each county in the corresponding period, in tabular form. [40645/25]
View answer407. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Social Protection the annual average cost per participant under the community employment scheme, by county, in each year of the programme’s existence, in tabular form. [40646/25]
View answer408. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of new participants joining the community employment scheme in each county in each year of the programme’s existence, and the corresponding new funding allocated, in tabular form. [40647/25]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 405, 406, 407 and 408 together.
As the Deputy is aware the Community Employment Scheme (CE) 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.
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.
The information requested by the Deputy is not held in the department, so it is not possible to provide a detailed response to the questions. Information on the cost per participant, or the number of entries onto the scheme per county is not held in the department. Details on participant numbers and overall expenditure on CE are published in the annual statistics reports.
The Annual Statistical Report in respect of 2024 is available at, www.gov.ie/en/department-of-social-protection/publications/2024-annual-statistics-report/ as is an archive of reports for each year from 1998 onwards.
I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.
