Vol. 546 No. 3
48 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the recommendations he will implement following the publication of the ESRI report on employability and management of the live register; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31632/01]
The ESRI report referred to is a wide-ranging and detailed treatment of the concept of employability and the issues involved in addressing the problem. These issues, as the consultants note, transcend a variety of sectors, Departments and agencies.
The consultants recommend that a system of profiling be adopted to facilitate early identification of factors likely to lead a person to become long-term unemployed. Early identification would allow appropriate interventions to be provided, from a variety of bodies, to prevent the drift into long-term unemployment.
My Department carried out intensive surveys of unemployed customers in Waterford and Galway last year. The ESRI has been contracted to carry out further analysis of the outcomes of these surveys. Part of this process will involve re-surveying original participants and using results to develop a statistical model of characteristics likely to lead a person to remain on the live register or to obtain employment. The consultants expect to be in a position to report on this process in mid-2002. Following on this other Departments, relevant agencies and the social partners will be consulted with a view to developing proposals to assist people with employability difficulties to access the labour market.
I should also like to point out that my Department is already engaged, as part of its employment support programme, in identifying and referring people on the live register who require a range of targeted supports to help them make the transition to work or further training and education. The types of services which my Department's jobs facilitators offer are broadly in line with the recommendations in the ESRI report.
Additionally, in line with the report's recommendations, my Department has developed co-operation, at a variety of levels, with agencies such as FÁS, the vocational education committees and the National Adult Literary Agency to assist customers in moving from the live register, having regard to the particular problems which they may have.
