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How Community Employment reaches your organisation

Community Employment is Exchequer-funded, not EU-funded. In the audited 2024 Vote 37 account, the only EU co-financed lines are Food and Material Assistance (ESF+) and the EaSI programme. CE is not one of them, so there is no Managing Authority, no ESF+ regulation and no EU retention rule behind it. Training is paid through the National Training Fund, a national fund, not an EU one. The sponsor is the legal employer of the participants and of the CE Supervisor. Unlike Tús, there is no Implementing Body in between: the Department signs an Agreement directly with each sponsor, confirms every participant's eligibility and pay rate in writing, approves every learner plan and course, and inspects each scheme at least once a year for finance and once for training and programme. The money is released in 4-week cycles, and the last one is held back until an independent auditor's statement arrives, due within six weeks of the project end date. Scheme renewal depends on passing both inspections.

Exchequer — Vote 37 (Social Protection), subhead A.12 Community Employment Programme. Training costs are paid through the National Training Fund, administered by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. Not EU co-funded.Run under the CE Agreement (Memorandum of Agreement and Agreement Schedule) between the Department and each sponsor, and the Community Employment Procedures Manual (May 2025 edition) · Exchequer grant rules in DPER Circular 13/2014 · jobseekers who refuse CE without good cause can be sanctioned under the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended by sections 12 and 13 of the Social Welfare and Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2013 · appeals under the Social Welfare (Appeals) Regulations 2024 (S.I. No. 744 of 2024)€367.4m provided and €369.2m spent in 2024 (Vote 37, subhead A.12; 2023 outturn €340.8m) · nearly €370m planned for 2025 · 19,557 participants and 1,219 Supervisors on 809 CE schemes in September 2025
One programme, too many disconnected records. Delivery notes, partner decisions, expenditure, results and reporting evidence often sit in different places.

How the money reaches an organisation

Every level here can be asked for its own process map. That is the point of yours.

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Department of Social Protection — CE Policy Unit and Divisions
Policy owner and funder. Issues the CE Procedures Manual and the grant rates. Its Community Development Officers assess sponsor applications, confirm each participant's eligibility and pay rate in writing, approve learner plans, training and extensions, and carry out the financial and the training and programme inspections
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Intreo Centres
Refer every participant. Only places filled by people referred through Intreo are funded, except drug rehabilitation places, which come from a recognised addiction service. Intreo also hears the first complaint about an eligibility decision
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National Training Fund — Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
Funds expenditure on CE training. The per-place training budget is advised to each sponsor every year by the Department's Division; no current figure is published
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CE National Monitoring Committee
Reviews sponsor applications that the Department's Divisions have approved to go forward. Outcome: approved, or approved with conditions that must be met before a contract can issue
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Trade unions — SIPTU or Fórsa
Approve the sponsor's work plan before it goes to the Department, only to make sure CE participants do not displace or replace paid staff or cut their hours. Approval is given in principle for 3 years
👉 Your organisation sits at this level
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CE Sponsor — company limited by guarantee, co-operative or public body
Legal employer of the participants and the Supervisor. At least 7 independent members, a Project Management Committee with Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and a Participant Development Officer. Signs the Agreement, recruits, contracts, pays, keeps the records and files audited accounts under DPER Circular 13/2014. No more than 3 CE contracts without Department approval
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CE Supervisor and the work sites
The Supervisor is employed full time by the sponsor, holds a major award at NFQ Level 6 or higher with 3 years' supervisory experience, and runs every participant's Individual Learner Plan. The Supervisor may not sign grant claims or be a bank signatory. Work can take place with sub-sponsors such as charity shops, childcare services or sports clubs
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Participants
21 or over after 12 months on a qualifying payment, or 18 or over on a disability-linked payment, as a refugee, a Traveller or Roma jobseeker, a referred ex-offender or in drug recovery. 19.5 hours a week, usually for one year; up to 3 years towards a major award, 3 years from 55, and up to State pension age from 60
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Audit chain
Built upward and entirely national. Sponsor's daily records and independent auditor's statement → the Department's financial and training and programme inspections, including unannounced visits → the final payment calculation, which DSP Internal Audit and the Comptroller and Auditor General may inspect → the Secretary General as Accounting Officer for Vote 37, who signs the appropriation account. The Comptroller and Auditor General audits that account and reports to Dáil Éireann, and gives no assurance on the Accounting Officer's statement on internal financial control. The Department can end a sponsor's Agreement for unapproved spending or unresolved non-compliance

Process maps under this programme

Where this came from

Human reviewed2026-10-26Automatically checked2026-10-26Current source statusSource site did not answer — we check it by handNothing on this page has changed. We will check the source by hand.

Read against the source on 2026-10-26. This is the human-reviewed version.

What that check changed: Checked on 26 October 2026 against the May 2025 CE Procedures Manual, the October 2026 rate sheet, the gov.ie service page, the 2024 Vote 37 appropriation account, Dáil answers and the Irish Statute Book; 13 sources are listed. Pay: the manual's worked examples still add €22.50 to the previous payment (3.2.5) and mention €27.50 for Jobseeker's Pay-Related Benefit (3.1.7). Both are out of date. The map uses the 2026 rate sheet and gov.ie: minimum €286.50, or the previous payment plus €32.50 where it was above €254. The gov.ie page links to Budget 2027 measures; any change from January 2027 is not confirmed and not shown. PRSI: the manual gives employee PRSI at Class A9 as 4%. The general Class A employee rate has changed since, so no percentage is shown, only the €352 threshold and the A8/A9 classes. Not confirmed: the current per-place training grant. The manual says the amount is advised every year by the Department's Division. The last figure found in a Dáil answer is from 2014 (€250 nominal, up to €500) and is not used. Not confirmed: a current national number of CE places. The map uses the participant count from the September 2025 Dáil answer and does not work out a cost per place. Refusal: Community Employment was confirmed as a prescribed programme for penalty rates in a 2013 Dáil answer, and the 21-day and 9-week steps in a 2018 answer. No later confirmation was found. These sanctions apply to jobseeker payments. Not confirmed: whether any sanction applies to people who come to CE from other payments, such as Disability Allowance or One-Parent Family Payment. Not confirmed: whether a CE eligibility decision, or not being selected by a sponsor, can be appealed to the Social Welfare Appeals Office. The map gives only the manual's complaints route (Intreo officer, then Divisional Assistant Principal) for those, and the 60-day appeal only for penalty and disqualification decisions. Not confirmed: whether leaving CE early by choice affects a later jobseeker claim. Left out; the map tells people only what the manual says about reopening Jobseeker's Allowance. For library maintainers: the Tús entry cites section 147(4) of the 2005 Act for the 9-week disqualification. The Irish Statute Book shows the 9-week activation disqualification was inserted by sections 12 and 13 of the 2013 Act, while the 2013 amendment to section 147(4) concerns refusing an offer of suitable employment. This CE entry cites the 2013 Act; the Tús citation may need review. Conflict between sources: the manual says time as a qualified adult on someone else's claim does not count (3.1.7, Note 1), but gov.ie says a qualified adult on a partner's Jobseeker's Allowance claim may take part under a pilot since 1 January 2023. The map does not state either rule in the steps. EU funding: the statement that CE is not EU co-funded rests on note 6.3 of the 2024 account. Earlier programme periods were not checked. Not confirmed: the membership of the CE National Monitoring Committee, and whether Pobal has any role in CE. Neither is described.

We built this map from information publicly available online — official guidelines, programme documents and the law — following the Vedomia method: we write down only what a source says, and we say where a source is silent. It is not official guidance. Your contract, your funder’s current rules and local practice can differ; check them before you rely on it.