Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 November 2004
119 Mr. P. Breen asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the definition of long-term unemployed; the number of persons who come under this category; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28144/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraTwelve months on the live register is the generally accepted definition of long-term unemployment and this is the definition used by this Department for most administrative purposes. Twelve months duration is also used by the Central Statistics Office in the quarterly national household survey. It is also the internationally accepted standard used by the ILO.
The number of people signing on the live register for longer than one year was 44,385 at the end of October 2004. This represents a decrease of 9,657, from the figure of 54,042 in October 2000. The number of persons signing long term on the live register in the period from October 2000 to October 2004 has decreased by 18%. My Department remains committed to assisting those persons who are long-term on the live register to make the transition to employment or to further training and education. Programmes such as the back to work and the back to education allowances assist people in returning to employment.
The employment action plan, which is operated with FÁS, is currently being extended to include everybody who has been on the live register in excess of six months and aged between 18 and 55 years of age. Further movement on this will be considered in the future.
