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Action Plan for Jobs

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 January 2013

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Questions (409, 410, 411, 416, 422, 425)

Dara Calleary

Question:

409. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Social Protection her plans to tackle the crisis of long-term unemployment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51849/12]

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Dara Calleary

Question:

410. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Social Protection her strategy to reduce long term unemployment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51861/12]

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Dara Calleary

Question:

411. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Social Protection the measures she is putting in place to reduce long term unemployment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51866/12]

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Thomas P. Broughan

Question:

416. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Social Protection her views regarding the recent rise in figures for the long term unemployed; if she is bringing forward any specific proposals to target the problem of long term unemployment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3176/13]

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Peadar Tóibín

Question:

422. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will outline the effectiveness of her response to long term unemployment. [3230/13]

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Peadar Tóibín

Question:

425. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Social Protection the steps taken by her Department to arrest the increase in long term unemployment since she became Minister; and her assessment of the impact of these steps. [3229/13]

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Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 409 to 411, inclusive, 416, 422 and 425 together.

The unemployment rate is currently 14.6% and while it has stabilised after several years of increases, the rate remains unacceptably high. It is of additional concern that long-term unemployment (defined as being unemployed for a year or more) accounted for 60% (193,000) of total unemployment in Q3 2012, and for almost half of all unemployment among young people.

In the first instance, the Government’s primary strategy to tackle long-term unemployment is to create the environment for a strong economy recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity through the Action Plan for Jobs. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth and thus reduce unemployment and long-term unemployment. In addition to promoting economic recovery, the Government recognises the need for measures to support the long-term unemployed and keep jobseekers close to the labour market. Past experience suggests that, without such measures, long-term unemployment may fall more slowly than overall unemployment when strong economic growth returns.

Given the scale of the unemployment crisis, the key objective of labour market policy and of the NEAP (National Employment Action Plan) is to keep those on the Live Register close to the labour market and prevent the drift into long-term unemployment. Persons from the Live Register availing of activation measures will get an opportunity to engage in employment, training and work experience and so be in a position to avail of employment opportunities as the economy improves. As such, the policy objective is to prioritise scarce resources on those on the Live Register so as to increase their chances of leaving it thereby ensuring a reduction in Exchequer costs over time.

In this context, the major elements of the Government’s response are set out in the Pathways to Work policy which is aimed at ensuring that as many as possible of the job vacancies that are created are filled by people from the Live Register, with a particular focus on those who are long term unemployed or at risk of long-term unemployment.

Pathways to Work

The Pathways to Work policy and the establishment of the new integrated INTREO service will transform the nature and level of engagement between our employment and income support services and the unemployed. The policy is underpinned by five core strands which reflect the new integrated employment and income support services which are currently being established. Each of these strands places the customer at the centre of all the service’s activities, recognising their individual and specific needs. The strands provide for:

- Transforming and reforming the employment and income support services institutions to deliver better services to the unemployed through an integrated approach.

- More regular and on-going engagement with people who are unemployed through active case management and profiling. There were almost 130,000 referrals of unemployed welfare recipients to the employment service in 2012.

- Greater targeting of activation places and opportunities by providing for over 85,000 places on initiatives such as Job Bridge – the National Internship Scheme, Tús, the Rural Social Scheme and the Jobs Initiative.

- Incentivising the take up of opportunities by the unemployed.

- Creating and enhancing relations with employers through incentivising the provision of opportunities for people who are unemployed. A major initiative planned for 2013 will be the streamlining of the existing Revenue Job Assist and Employer PRSI schemes into a single easy to administer scheme that offers an attractive incentive to employers recruiting people who are long-term unemployed.

The Pathways to Work policy sets very ambitious targets for the long-term unemployed to be achieved over the next three years:

- To ensure that 75,000 of those long term unemployed in 2012 will move into employment by 2015.

- To reduce the average time spent on the live register from 21 months to less than 12 months.

- To ensure that employers have access to and are offered suitable candidate to fill full time vacancies and that the proportion of vacancies filled by the Department’s employment services from the Live Register is at least to 40% by 2015.

- To ensure that each person in receipt of a jobseeker payment fulfils their personal responsibility to engage fully with the employment and training supports provided by the State as a pre-condition for recipe of their welfare payments.

In addition to the new initiatives announced under the Pathways to Work programme, the Department also manages a number of schemes providing temporary employment for the long-term unemployed on works and services of value to the community. There are currently 26,000 people participating on Community Employment and Tús. As part of Budget 2013, the Government approved 10,000 new places across CE, TÚS, JobBridge and a new social employment scheme with the Local Authorities. The Department also supports long-term unemployed people who create jobs through self-employment. Currently, about 12,000 people are being supported under the Back to Work Allowance scheme and the Short-term Enterprise Allowance scheme.

Education & Training

The Government has also taken various initiatives to allow those who are out of work to up-skill through the education and training system. The most prominent schemes in this regard are the Back to Education Allowance and the Springboard Initiative. There are almost 26,000 participants on the Back to Education Allowance scheme in the current academic year. Springboard offers a choice of free courses in higher education from certificate, to degree, to post-graduate level. All courses lead to qualifications in enterprise sectors which are growing and need skilled personnel. Participants on Springboard courses retain their social welfare payments. Sixty-per cent of Springboard participants have been unemployed for more than twelve months and one third of those for more than 24 months. Over 3,500 people graduated from the first round of Springboard programmes, which were put in place in 2011, and an additional 6,000 places were made available for this academic year.

The State is also providing a wide range of vocational training options outside of the mainstream education system that are closely aligned to the needs of the labour market. Specific Skills Training courses are employment-led and lead to qualifications that offer learners both generic and advanced skills. The expected outcomes are progression to employment in the occupational field or to further and higher education/training and the achievement of certification from levels 5 – 7 in the National Qualifications Framework. The training system also provides Apprenticeships and Traineeships which entail significant skill requirements best acquired through a combination of alternating periods of on and off-the-job training. There were some 27,000 participants on these three FAS programmes in 2011. The Government is prioritising places on training courses for those who have been on the Live Register for 12 months or more.

In addition to these programmes, MOMENTUM, a scheme for education and training interventions specifically for the long-term unemployed, is currently being rolled out by the Department of Education. MOMENTUM will support the provision of free education and training projects to allow 6,500 long-term unemployed to gain skills and to access work opportunities in identified growing sectors. MOMENTUM will provide the long-term unemployed with

- Access to a range of quality education and training projects

- Links to identified job vacancies and employers

- Work placement and support

- Relevant industry and National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ ) Certification.

Under the scheme, Labour Market Education and Training Fund (LMETF) funding is being utilised to provide education and training solutions nationwide to the needs of both long-term unemployed and employers within the context of four themes. The first three themes are based on 'clusters of occupations'. These have been chosen because there is evidence available which shows that these skills are associated with relatively good employment opportunities. Theme 4 is dedicated to under 25s and will provide a solid foundation for them to gain employment and/or continue in further education and training that will progress them into employment.

Policy Impact:

The additional places being provided on a range of employment and education measures in 2013 will have a direct impact in providing opportunities for people who are currently long-term unemployed. While there should be an impact in medium to long term in improving people’s probability of sustainable exit from the Live Register as a result of these measures, the impact is not quantifiable. However, we do have some preliminary evaluation of a significant component of Pathways to Work - the JobBridge Internship Scheme. The findings of the interim evaluation of JobBridge, the National Internship Scheme by Indecon International Economic Consultants, published in October 2012, found that 61% of finishers secured employment within five months of completing their internship. These progression rates compare favourably with European averages in this area and represent very significant progress in a short period of time. Long-term unemployed made up 38% of participants covered by the evaluation.

More generally, while it is clear that long-term unemployment remains stubbornly high, there has been a noticeable reduction in the inflow into long-term duration on the live register in the recent past. For example, the number of people unemployed for between one and two years fell from almost 80,000 in early 2011 to 55,000 at the end of 2012.However, many of those who became unemployed at the height of the jobs crisis in 2009 have found it particularly difficult to find employment. They are now a target priority group for activation measures.

Questions Nos. 412 to 414, inclusive, answered with Question No. 408.
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