118. Deputy Verona Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if community employment sponsors must set aside reserve funds to cover redundancy payments, whether statutory or enhanced, as a contingency in the event of the project becoming insolvent; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39567/24]

119. Deputy Verona Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if her Department assesses the financial viability of CE sponsors to cover redundancy costs before signing annual contracts with the sponsor; if not, the reason; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39568/24]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 118 and 119 together.

Schemes such as Community Employment (CE) are positive initiatives that enable the long-term unemployed to make a contribution to their communities while up-skilling themselves for prospective future employment.  The Department of Social Protection funds CE, which is delivered by independent sponsor organisations.  As such, supervisors employed on CE schemes are employees of the individual companies.

Where a sponsor organisation takes a decision to cease operations, an issue of redundancy may arise in relation to any supervisor employed.  Where the CE sponsor organisation, as an employer, does not have the funds to pay statutory redundancy, they can submit an application on their employee’s behalf to the Department for payment to be made through the Redundancy Payment Scheme.

The Department is not the employer of CE supervisors and payment of redundancy over and above the statutory requirement is a matter for the employer, which in this instance is the CE sponsor.  Generally, where CE schemes close, every effort is made to maintain services through amalgamation with other schemes with employment maintained for CE supervisors and places protected for participants.  This minimises the need for redundancy, but where a redundancy arises, it is an issue for the employer to resolve.

It is important to note that while DSP is a funder of CE schemes, it does not employ supervisors or participants and has no role in appointing board members to the sponsoring organisations.  It is expected that all board members should be aware of their legal and fiduciary responsibilities in relation to the operation and windup of the companies which they oversee.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the deputy.