Social Welfare Schemes Data

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 December 2018

Tuesday, 11 December 2018

Questions (549)

Willie O'Dea

Question:

549. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons in each county participating in each of the employment and activation programmes in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52024/18]

Written answers

Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection

Data on the number of participants in activation programmes is reported on a monthly basis by the Central Statistics Office.  The following table provides the number of participants on activation programmes at the county level in October 2018.

COUNTY	Back to work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA)	Short Term Enterprise Allowance (STEA)	Community Employment (CE) Participants	Back to Education Allowance (BTEA)	Tús*
Carlow	105	1	428	188	134
Cavan	172	6	311	87	120
Clare	226	8	451	173	149
Cork	503	20	1893	349	593
Donegal	350	13	1087	454	367
Dublin	1546	105	4617	1589	1306
Galway	304	20	1291	473	416
Kerry	238	13	970	377	228
Kildare	216	21	807	229	199
Kilkenny	189	5	466	161	98
Laois	143	5	274	158	116
Leitrim	130	4	191	60	77
Limerick	191	15	1131	449	273
Longford	153	1	308	75	103
Louth	275	12	794	355	207
Mayo	224	14	709	239	299
Meath	243	16	490	86	238
Monaghan	87	2	379	71	88
Offaly	167	13	358	198	154
Roscommon	142	4	256	52	72
Sligo	109	1	430	181	147
Tipperary	292	8	805	309	361
Waterford	290	5	703	381	286
Westmeath	198	6	594	167	102
Wexford	261	10	949	233	313
Wicklow	250	9	551	222	259
TOTAL	7004	337	21,243	7839	6705
Northern Ireland/Ireland	-	-	-	-	-

[Table cont]

COUNTY	Gateway*	Part-time Job Incentive	Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS)	SOLAS Training Programmes	Total
Carlow	0	3	-	100	859
Cavan	0	14	-	128	710
Clare	0	10	-	145	1017
Cork	0	17	-	760	3375
Donegal	0	5	-	278	2276
Dublin	0	57	-	1076	9920
Galway	0	13	-	196	2517
Kerry	0	8	-	242	1834
Kildare	0	9	-	324	1481
Kilkenny	0	4	-	85	923
Laois	1	5	-	84	702
Leitrim	0	8	-	79	470
Limerick	0	7	-	236	2066
Longford	0	10	-	57	650
Louth	0	23	-	246	1666
Mayo	0	4	-	90	1489
Meath	0	6	-	144	1079
Monaghan	0	7	-	79	634
Offaly	0	4	-	79	894
Roscommon	0	2	-	130	528
Sligo	0	11	-	95	879
Tipperary	1	30	-	243	1806
Waterford	0	12	-	310	1677
Westmeath	0	8	-	201	1075
Wexford	0	6	-	212	1772
Wicklow	0	0	-	110	1291
TOTAL	2	283	-	5729	49,142
Northern Ireland/Ireland	-	-	-	111	111***
			5,000**	-	54,257

*Tús and Gateway figures are based on participant’s home address; other figures are by office location. Gateway is now closed to new applications.

**County figures for VTOS are not currently available

***A number of participants in SOLAS training schemes have home addresses in Northern Ireland or are recorded under a generic “Ireland”

Activation programmes form part of the Government’s overall policy to reduce unemployment.  First, through policies set out in the Action Plan for Jobs, to create an environment in which business can succeed and create jobs; and second, through Pathways to Work to ensure that as many of these new jobs and other vacancies that arise in our economy are filled by people taken from the Live Register, and in particular the long-term unemployed.

These policies have shown positive results, with unemployment falling from over 15% in 2012 to 5.3% in November 2018.  Demand for places on a number of activation programmes has thus fallen in line with the overall reduction in unemployment. 

I am confident that policy to reduce unemployment, together with continuing economic recovery, will build on significant improvements in the labour market seen in recent years.