Labour Activation Programmes Data

Tuesday, 28 March 2017

Ceisteanna (237)

Willie O'Dea

Ceist:

237. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons on activation programmes under the remit of his Department, by scheme, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15161/17]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Social Protection

Data on the number of participants in job activation programmes is reported monthly by programme by the Central Statistics Office. Table 1 gives the number of persons on activation programmes under the remit of my Department in each January from 2012 to 2017.

Table 1: Numbers on DSP Activation Programmes as at January, 2012 to 2017

	2012 M01	2013 M01	2014 M01	2015 M01	2016 M01	2017 M01
Back to work allowance scheme - employee strand	162	14	9	2	0	0
Back to work enterprise allowance scheme - self-employed strand	10772	10812	10160	11180	11795	10845
Short-term enterprise allowance	1201	1002	488	440	382	378
Other activation programmes - DSP part-time job incentive	190	215	296	397	405	483
Other activation programmes - TUS - community work placement initiative	2337	4510	7119	7865	7880	7230
Other activation programmes - JobBridge	3469	5565	6440	6220	4323	1630
Other activation programmes - Gateway	..	..	13	1770	2311	560
Community employment schemes (excluding supervisors)	22298	21063	22512	22927	22706	22356
Back to education courses - back to education allowance (BTEA)	25646	25805	24728	23497	18263	14214
Total DSP activation programmes	66075	68986	71765	74298	68065	57696

These programmes, together with programmes under the remit of other Departments (including Solas training programmes for unemployed people) form part of the Government’s overall policy to reduce unemployment. That overall policy has two main strands – 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 6.6% in February 2017. Demand for places on a number of activation programmes has tended to fall in line with the overall fall in the numbers of people who are unemployed.

I am confident these policies, together with continuing economic recovery, will support further reductions in unemployment, and add to the substantial improvements that have already been seen over the last few years.