Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 January 2013
103. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Social Protection the reason those on one parent family payments have been excluded from accessing the Momentum initiative announced by her Department last month; if she has plans to extend the scope of this scheme to those in receipt of one parent family payments who are not working and would like to enter the workforce in the near future; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4732/13]
View answer110. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Social Protection if those in receipt of one parent family payment are included in the live register figures if they are not working; her views on whether those in receipt of one parent family payments should be excluded from accessing the momentum training initiative if they are not employed and hope to enter the workforce; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4730/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 110 and 103 together.
The Governments policy statement on Labour Market Activation is outlined in ‘Pathways to Work’ .The implementation of this policy aims to ensure that people who are unemployed will be given the opportunity to acquire suitable skills and/or qualifications to progress them on a pathway to work. 'Pathways to Work' commits to greater targeting of activation places and opportunities and given limited public resources, it is essential that certain activation measures are targeted at the long-term unemployed.
Momentum is a targeted initiative which provides free education and training places for up to 6,500 long-term unemployed jobseekers. The programmes will include on-the job training in the form of work experience modules as well as the development of the workplace skills required to obtain and retain employment. The Momentum initiative only represents a small percentage, however, of the over 450,000 state-funded places provided in further education, higher education and training, namely:
- 75,000 FÁS training places in 2012
- 180,000 Further Education places 162,000 full-time Higher Education places, through Universities and Institutes of Technology across the country
- Over 40,000 training places, including 8,000 for the unemployed, in partnership with private employers
- Over 6,000 Springboard, free part-time higher education, places in 2012, with additional places to be announced for this year
One parent family recipients are currently not recorded on the Live Register and there are no plans to extend the eligibility of this targeted initiative beyond those on the Live Register.
