'I don't know anyone who'd like to work for €271.50 a week'

Councillors in Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District have called for a full review of existing community employment schemes to support workers and help them transfer seamlessly between schemes, retain benefits and earn money that will meet current cost-of-living demands.

Cllr Patsy O’Brien told last week's municipal district meeting that local councils around the country would be lost without the aid of scheme workers.

Cllr O'Brien said he was unhappy with a letter from Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary on the issue, describing its contents as "a typical civil service response just to say they were looking into the payment of €271.50 a week”.

“I don’t know anyone that would like to work for that," Cllr O'Brien said. "The travel expenses are also very vague - there don’t seem to be any - and the fuel allowance entitlement is also very unclear. So a lot of people going from one scheme to another get very little allowance.

“This is about trying to encourage the schemes to be retained as it is so important to us to have them operating at full level because the council needs the help of these workers and not one council in the country doesn’t have Tús workers helping with jobs. A lot are maintaining our community grounds, our parish churches, everything is linked to them, so some thought must be given to ease the scheme conditions for these people to support them and encourage them to continue.”

Cathaoirleach Cllr Damian Ryan supported the call, saying: “A lot of these people also bring skills and are filling a vacuum the council cannot. They picked up on a backlog for us after Storm Éowyn and I think we should make a submission on this to the framework for Budget 2026.” 

Cllr Alma Gallagher said she worked very closely with the Local Employment Scheme and Tús workers and it was not just the budgetary aspect that needed reviewing but the whole mechanism of the schemes within the Department.

"We are nearly at full employment and the eligibility criteria are not fit for purpose. People are bound to work for 19.5 hours a week but there is no provision for childcare. You also have community workers on different schemes getting different payments for doing the same job and there is real fear people will lose benefits such as medical cards and fuel allowance transferring between the Rural Social Scheme and the Community Employment Scheme, so there needs to be equity, fairness and equality. Also, while Mayo County Council may have funding for work equipment, other employers don’t so a complete overhaul of all of the schemes is required to reflect societal needs of today.” 

Cllr Michael Burke supported the call saying that the schemes have been operating under the same system for years.

"It suits a lot to be on the scheme but they are not getting a great deal and that is why we are finding it hard to get new workers. These people do great work in every town and village so the system should be reviewed.”