Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 January 2018
581. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to outline her views on each recommendation (details supplied) as contained in the National Competitiveness Council report, Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2017; her plans to implement the policy recommendations which she has statutory remit for; and the timeframe for implementation. [4055/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe goal of the Government’s Pathways to Work Strategy is to ensure that as many jobs as possible go to people on the Live Register and to other groups that tend to have limited access to the labour market. Ensuring that work always pays and preventing long-term dependency on welfare are also important aspects of this strategy. Under this policy, employment services and activation supports are heavily concentrated on the areas of highest unemployment.
A set of milestones and metrics have been developed as indicators of progress in addressing the challenges and delivering on Pathways to Work 2016-2010. Progress on milestones and metrics are published on the Department’s website (www.welfare.ie) and the metrics themselves are reviewed and updated on an annual basis to reflect the key challenges and issues being addressed under this strategy each year. Many of these will directly impact upon the reduction of long-term unemployment over the period of the strategy to 2020.
In May this year, I will be introducing a new work experience programme targeted specifically at young jobseekers who are long-term unemployed or who face significant barriers to gaining employment. The new Youth Employment Support Scheme (YESS) will provide young jobseekers with the opportunity to learn basic work and social skills in a supportive environment while on a work placement. Host Organisations will be encouraged to hire participants who have performed well and will qualify for a financial subsidy under JobsPlus Youth. YESS will complement other initiatives such as the expanded range of Apprenticeships and Career Traineeships. The scheme will be publicly advertised with information leaflets made available for both jobseekers and host organisations.
My Department has also procured additional resources to provide a high quality case managed employment support service to people who are long term unemployed and those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed. The JobPath service was designed to augment and complement the Department’s existing employment service capacity, including that provided by Local Employment Services (LES).
An in-depth evaluation of the JobPath strand of the Department’s activation service has commenced data gathering with completion of the evaluation provisionally scheduled for the end of Quarter 3,2018. Additionally, reports on the performance of the service are published on a quarterly basis and can be accessed on the Department’s website.
I am confident that the current and planned measures, together with the continuing strong performance of the economy, will support further reductions in long term unemployment and youth unemployment, and add to the substantial improvements that have already been seen over the last few years.
Question No. 582 withdrawn.
