Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys T.D., and Minister of State, Joe O’Brien T.D., have today announced further measures to support participants of Community Employment (CE) and Tús schemes.

Under the measures, CE and Tús participants’ contracts will be further extended until the end of October 2021.

This will benefit 7,000 participants who have been granted contract extensions since last October and whose contracts were due to end in July.

And the measure will benefit over 4,000 additional existing CE/ Tús participants whose contracts would ordinarily come to an end between July and October.

The supports being announced today will ensure the schemes can fully re-commence service delivery in local communities, while also supporting participants who have been long-term unemployed.

Importantly, this final extension will also allow CE and Tús schemes to conclude participants’ placements on a co-ordinated and phased basis.

This will also facilitate the planned increase in the rate of referrals to fill existing and new vacancies to ensure that opportunities to participate on the schemes continue to be available to those who are long term unemployed and furthest removed from the labour market.

From the end of October there will be a phased exit of those CE and Tús participants who have benefitted from this latest extension over a number of months up until February 2022.