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Thursday, 17 Oct 2013

Written Answers Nos. 26-35

Poverty Impact Assessment

Questions (26)

John McGuinness

Question:

26. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Social Protection her views on whether all Government policy should be poverty proofed; if she has any proposals in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43344/13]

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Written answers

Poverty Impact Assessment (formerly poverty proofing) is a requirement under the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016. Poverty impact assessment is the process by which Government departments, local authorities and state agencies assess policies and programmes at design, implementation and review stages in relation to the likely impact that they will have or have had on poverty and on inequalities which are likely to lead to poverty, with a view to poverty reduction. In line with this requirement, the Cabinet Handbook states that memoranda for Government involving significant policy proposals should "indicate clearly the impact of the proposal on groups in poverty or at risk of falling into poverty". Official guidelines for poverty impact assessment are available on the Department’s website (https://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Guidelines-and-Templates.aspx). The Social Inclusion Policy Division provides assistance to Government Departments and other bodies on the application of the guidelines. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of individual Government Departments and other bodies to adhere to the guidelines. The Government decided in 2012 to incorporate poverty impact assessment into an integrated social impact assessment in order to support the implementation of the national social target for poverty reduction and to ensure greater policy coordination in the social sphere. Social impact assessment is an evidence-based methodology to estimate the distributive impact of policy changes in relation to employment, income and services on vulnerable groups in society. It is widely practiced at EU level, in particular by the European Commission. At national level, social impact assessment is in its infancy.

In March 2013, the Department published the Social impact assessment of the main welfare and direct tax measures in Budget 2013. The assessment focuses on the main welfare and direct tax components of the Budget which have a direct impact on household incomes. A similar exercise is planned for Budget 2014.

Unemployment Data

Questions (28)

Brendan Griffin

Question:

28. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Social Protection the quality of information her Department has on the individual skill sets of each of the over 14,000 persons in Kerry on the live register; if efforts are being made to bring these skills to the attention of industry leaders, if she would consider establishing a website with an anonymous serial-numbered account for everyone on the live register, with their CVs and other relevant professional details, which could be categorised by industry and made accessible to employers to enable them to search for suitable employees and offer them interviews; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43409/13]

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Written answers

The Deputy will be aware that the Department of Social Protection has undergone a significant transformation in recent years with the merger of welfare and employment services, which up until 2012, were provided by three separate organisations. This on-going transformation agenda is underpinned by the Government’s twin-pronged approaches set out in the Action Plan for Jobs, focused on creating additional jobs in the Irish economy and Pathways to Work, focused on trying to ensure that as many as possible of new or other vacancies in the economy are filled by candidates from the live register.

This merger facilitated the redesign and reconfiguration of services so as to improve the quality of service the Department provides to jobseekers and employers. In particular, it enables the Department to ensure that jobseekers registering for income supports have earlier access to employment services

The development of closer links with employers as a means of securing work opportunities to which jobseekers can be referred is another key aspect of the transformation agenda. To this end the Department established a new employer relations division in early 2012 and appointed nominated employer engagement managers in each of its thirteen divisions to increase its engagement with employers.

The employment services operated by the Department through its divisional and national support services and the European Employment Services (EURES) network deliver a range of services to assist employers in relation to their recruitment and employment support needs. This includes the provision of a dedicated vacancy and candidate matching service through the National Contact Centre, operating as Jobs Ireland. The Department also provides candidate matching services to employers in each of its offices around the country. The provision of this service utilises information relating to employment history and educational qualifications collected from jobseekers at their initial registration with our welfare/employment services and in their one-to-one engagement with case officers.

As part of the process of building closer links with employers the Department ran a series of employer road-shows in 2012/2013 and also hosted several employment and advice events across the country. A high proportion of attendees at the employment and advice events were unemployed people. Further similar events are planned for 2013/2014. Marketing collateral has been developed and a particular effort is being made to increase awareness of the existing recruitment subsidies available to employers. A jobseeker’s information pack has also been developed. Employer and jobseekers information packs are available on www.welfare.ie The Department’s South West Division covers County Kerry. The Department’s policy of engaging with employers is being actively implemented in Kerry. This includes case officers regularly calling to employers promoting employer services such as Jobs Ireland, JobsPlus, JobBridge and job matching supports and attending employers networking events in the Kerry area. Local management also have Local Employment Services and associated Partnerships in Kerry promoting these services and supports. A further avenue of services promotion is through locally organised Job Fairs, the most recent of which was held in Killarney in May 2013.

The Department’s new Intreo service is a one stop shop for all income and employment support services for our jobseeking customers. The Intreo service in Killarney commenced in January of this year and the service has also has been partially introduced in Tralee and Listowel and it is intended to have it further rolled out in these towns and in Cahirciveen and Kenmare by the end of the year. Local Intreo services continuously promote local vacancies to unemployed clients and carry out matching to alert clients to suitable vacancies. Department staff also progress unemployed clients to education and training programmes to better enable them compete for job vacancies as they arise. The Department’s work schemes such as Community Employment, TUS and Gateway are also providing key interventions and supports to enable long term unemployed prepare to progress into full time training and job placement.

In order to ensure a quality service for jobseekers and employers, the Department is in the process of developing its current Jobs Ireland web service. It is intended that that the new system will provide enhanced online employment services for jobseekers and employers allowing employers to advertise their vacancies and search for jobseekers while all jobseekers will be able to search for vacancies, training and to create an online profile that will allow the jobseeker to demonstrate their relevant skillsets and experience to prospective employers. The option of making registration with this online service compulsory for all jobseekers who are in receipt of a welfare payment and are deemed ‘job ready’ by the Departments case officers is under consideration and is being catered for in the development of the new system.

Community Employment Schemes Eligibility

Questions (29)

Thomas P. Broughan

Question:

29. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Social Protection her plans to introduce measures to enable persons in receipt of carer's allowance to participate in community employment schemes or training courses provided by her Department in view of the limitations on carers in pursuing further education, training or employment. [43132/13]

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Written answers

There are certain conditions placed on persons in receipt of carer’s allowance. For example, they cannot be engaged in employment, self-employment, training or education courses outside the home for more than 15 hours a week as this would impact on their caring responsibilities. Community Employment involves working a 19½ hour week, so by taking up a CE position they would be in breach of this rule, which would cause the payment to cease.

However, when a person’s caring responsibilities cease, they can transfer to a CE-qualifying social welfare payment (e.g. jobseeker’s allowance) for at least 1 week and have their cumulative time spent in receipt of carer’s allowance and their current payment counted towards the 12 month CE-qualifying period (e.g. 51 weeks on carer’s allowance plus 1 week on jobseekers allowance will qualify the person for one year on CE).

There are no plans to introduce further measures in this regard in relation to participation on Community Employment schemes.

Question No. 30 answered with Question No. 15.

Social Welfare Schemes

Questions (31, 50)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Question:

31. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Social Protection in view of the recruitment embargo on local authorities, the paid employment opportunities that it is envisaged participants on the proposed gateway scheme will obtain once they have completed the programme. [43366/13]

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Jonathan O'Brien

Question:

50. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Social Protection the formal training qualifications that participants on Gateway will obtain during their participation. [43372/13]

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Written answers

I propose to answer Question Nos. 31 and 50 together.

Gateway aims to improve the employability and work readiness of participants by providing them with the opportunities to put their work skills into practice and to learn new skills to enable them to progress to work, further education or other development opportunities. In line with Pathways to Work, Gateway will provide, for those selected, opportunities to maintain work readiness and to bridge the gap between unemployment and re-entering the workforce. The process of identifying work opportunities is currently underway in each county and city council, including the necessary consultation with stakeholders. The Deputy will appreciate that the Department of Social Protection has no role in determining the positions that might be made available within each council given the range of services that county and city councils deliver.

I understand however, that a variety of tasks will be identified and made available to Gateway participants. This will include a mixture of new opportunities and opportunities to work in services that have not been provided by county and city councils due to the pressure of scarce resources.

The primary focus of Gateway is to improve the employability and work readiness of participants by providing them with opportunities to put their work skills into practice and to learn new skills to enable them to progress to work, further education or other development opportunities. County and city councils will have primary responsibility for identifying and arranging for the delivery of training requirements. The Government has provided funding of €2.835 million from the Dormant Accounts Fund to defray the costs of inputs and compliance/training costs.

Question No. 32 answered with Question No. 17.

Youth Guarantee

Questions (33)

Barry Cowen

Question:

33. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Social Protection the total amount of funding allocated from the European Union for the Youth Guarantee scheme here; whether it is adequate in her view; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43347/13]

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Written answers

As part of the European Council agreement on the 2014 – 2020 EU Budget earlier this year, it was decided, in association with the agreement on the Youth Guarantee, to provide €6 billion for a new Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) for regions with particularly high levels of youth unemployment. €3 billion of this is to be earmarked from existing resources within the European Social Fund, and €3 billion from a new fund. It was also decided that payments of the Youth Employment Initiative will be front-loaded and all monies provided for this purpose will be allocated to measures undertaken in 2014 and 2015.

The exact allocation of this funding between countries is yet to be determined. The Department of Social Protection is leading an inter-departmental group to develop an implementation plan for Ireland and we expect to submit this plan to the EU commission before the end of this year.

For Ireland this plan will likely require that we:

- Earmark a quota of additional places/opportunities for young people on existing schemes.

- Vary the eligibility conditions for access to certain schemes by young people - for example reduce the eligibility criteria so that young people can access places/opportunities after 4 – 6 months of unemployment rather than the general requirement of 12 months unemployment.

- Expand the range of opportunities currently on offer to young people in the form of further education and training, internships, subsidised private-sector recruitment, and supports for self-employment.

At present we spend c €170m per annum on employment, training and further education programmes for young people. The type of actions set out above will inevitably involve some increase in the level of expenditure on programme take-up by young people.

As an initial step towards preparing for implementation of the guarantee, provision was made in this week’s 2014 Budget for:

- reducing the threshold (in terms of duration of unemployment) for JobsPlus eligibility from 12 months – to 6 months or less – in the case of persons aged less than 25 years,

- an additional intake of 1,500 young people on to the very successful JobBridge scheme,

- ensuring that 1,000 places on the Tús scheme are targeted at young people,

- developing a pilot programme to support young unemployed people to take up opportunities under schemes such as Your First EURES Job,

- ring-fencing a minimum of 2,000 training places for under-25s by the Department of Education and Skills, under a follow-up to the successful Momentum programme that operated in 2013, with income support for participants being provided by my department,

- the Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation making funds available to young entrepreneurs via Micro finance Ireland and other business start-up schemes.

In total, the provision across these headings in the 2014 Budget comes to about €46 million.

Given the scale of existing and future provision it is clear that the bulk of funding for labour market programmes for young people will continue to come from domestic exchequer sources. We will however endeavour to maximise Ireland’s share of the additional funding available from the EU.

Labour Market Issues

Questions (34)

Jonathan O'Brien

Question:

34. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Social Protection the role of the new labour market council; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43373/13]

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Written answers

The role of the Labour Market Council is to advise the Minister on matters relating to the implementation of Pathways to Work.

Membership of the Council comprises national and international stakeholders and policy experts. This is an approach which has worked well, for example, with regard to the implementation of JobBridge.

Over an initial 12 month period to Sept. 2014, the group will be tasked with advising the Minister by:

- Monitoring the implementation of the Pathways to Work 2013 strategy.

- Identifying key issues arising from the implementation of the strategy and suggesting possible policy and/or operational responses.

- Providing input to and feedback on strategies to increase employer and jobseeker awareness of, and engagement with, the various initiatives identified in the strategy.

- Providing input to and feedback on the design and implementation of the Youth Guarantee for Ireland.

- Providing input to and feedback on the development of a contracting model for caseworker resources.

- Providing insights and experience relating to wider policy issues relevant to developments in the labour market generally, including employment trends, skills, training and workforce developments.

- Contributing to developing the wider public awareness of the Pathways to Work strategy.

- Providing the Minister for Social Protection and the Government with input to and feedback on revisions to and further development of the Pathways to Work strategy during 2014.

- Publishing an annual statement outlining the Council’s findings.

National Internship Scheme Administration

Questions (35, 43, 47)

Brendan Griffin

Question:

35. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will explore the viability and potential benefits of increasing the top up payment paid to JobBridge interns; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43408/13]

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Pearse Doherty

Question:

43. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the motion passed by ICTU which concludes that JobBridge depresses genuine job creation and exerts downward pressure on wage levels; and her response to these conclusions. [43368/13]

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Pearse Doherty

Question:

47. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Social Protection her views on whether companies who can afford to create a new position of employment are choosing instead to take nine months labour for free at her Department's expense via the JobBridge scheme; and if she will make reforms to the scheme to mitigate the negative impact it has on job creation. [43369/13]

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Written answers

I propose to take Question Nos. 35, 43 and 47 together.

The primary purpose of JobBridge is to provide unemployed people with an access route to employment which may otherwise be denied to them, on account of experience, qualifications or other grounds, in a very competitive labour market. JobBridge provides an opportunity to people, who have been unemployed for a period of time, to prove themselves to prospective employers and acquire real workplace experience to enhance their CVs.

As always with such schemes there will be some deadweight and displacement effects and the Department is acutely aware of the need to minimise these impacts. Accordingly, it incorporated a number of conditions into the scheme to minimise any such impacts including; placing a cap on the total number of interns that can be hired by any one organisation; placing limits on the duration of internships; including a cooling off period so that organisations cannot hire interns one after the other in sequence; requiring organisations to appoint a mentor to each intern, to complete a standard agreement for each intern and to provide an undertaking that the internship is not being used to displace employees. In addition host organisations are not permitted to advertise internships in areas where they have recently made redundancies or in areas where they currently have paid posts advertised. Host organisations must also complete and submit a monthly compliance report to the Department. The Department provides an on-line facility for interns or others to report breaches of these conditions.

The Department takes a serious view of any allegations that these scheme conditions/requirements are being breached and as part of its control process conducts random on-site inspection visits. The Department has conducted over 3,400 such monitoring visits to-date of which c 98% have been of a satisfactory nature. Remedial action is taken in all cases of non-compliance.

The Department also engaged a firm of expert economic consultants to conduct an independent evaluation of the operation and effectiveness of the scheme, including an assessment of its displacement impacts. Overall the evaluation, by Indecon, estimated the level of displacement (between 3% and 6%) to be negligible relative to the positive progression outcomes for interns (Over 61% of interns progress into employment).

I am not at this time planning to increase the top-up payment paid to interns.

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