Humphreys defends response to community services scheme

Minister of State Kevin Humphreys has defended the Government’s response to the community services programme (CSP), which provides financial support to not-for-profit organisations providing services of a social-inclusion nature.

Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin social protection spokesmen Willie O’Dea and Aengus Ó Snodaigh called for an increase in State funding to the programmes after the implementation of the rise in minimum wages.

Mr Humphreys said “the fact of the matter is that we want people involved in the CSP to be paid a good wage. However, our funding is approximately one-third of the requirement.”

He said he wanted to try to ensure that people with a career in this area had a reasonable wage. “Mechanisms are being put in place within the programme to provide additional resources to any company with a short-term financial difficulty . . . We will proceed on a case-by-case basis.”

Cost of minimum wage

Mr O’Dea said only 40 per cent of their employees are on the minimum wage while the other 60 per cent received wages above that level. “If one increases the minimum wage, that increases a company’s costs.

“If the company is not-for-profit, one is not talking about reducing its profits but about a reduction in services due to less money being available.”

Mr Ó Snodaigh said companies had been told their 2016 financial plan would need to incorporate any additional cost necessary to implement the minimum wage requirement.