Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 September 2013
558. Deputy Eoghan Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide the following information for each local employment service, the number of staff at year end 2012; the number of mediators positions at year end 2012; the total annual budget for 2012; the total annual progressions as per her Department's MIS for year end 2012; and the total number of job placements as per her Department's MIS for year end 2012. [36981/13]
View answerIn 2012 the department contracted for the provision of the local employment service (LES) with 23 local development/community companies, the details of which are set out in the tabular statement hereunder.
These organisations deliver employment services through a network of local contact points and/or outreach services. The LES provide services for both jobseekers who are referred through the department’s activation processes for supports and jobseekers identified as being most distant from the labour market e.g. people who have a disability, ex-offenders, etc. In 2012 there were 293.3 full time equivalent staff employed by these organisations to deliver the service, of whom 152.6 were full time equivalent mediators. At 31st December 2012, apart from having placed 8,314 people into employment, the LES had also progressed some 17,618 jobseekers into training/educational programmes.
The total budget for the LES in 2012 was €19.1m. As the Department may shortly be tendering for providers to augment the capacity of LES, I do not intend to publish figures or the payments made to individual LES contractors at this time.
