Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I suppose we have to go back to what social protection is about. It is providing a basic income to people and therein lies the problem because they probably have other income. We can go through this again and I am happy to hear and look at the suggestions of the committee members. I know what they are saying and I have seen it myself.

To go back to JobPath, there are 201,000 people on the live register and a further 340,000 people are in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment. The economic impact of the pandemic has certainly increased the number of people who are likely to require these supports.

I mentioned the OECD report and I am very happy to provide the committee with a copy of it. It is not a problem. JobPath has a proven track record of providing sustained employment. Up to September 2020, more than 280,000 jobseekers had commenced engagement with JobPath and to date more than 64,000 jobseekers have commenced employment during their engagement period with JobPath. In 2018, the Comptroller and Auditor General undertook a detailed report on the JobPath service and, in particular, he examined how the Department of Social Protection monitored and measured the achievement of the JobPath contract objectives and the associated costs. It is notable that the Comptroller and Auditor General made no recommendations on how the JobPath service is governed. He did not see any issue there.

We are facing record unemployment as a result of the pandemic and now is not the time to be cutting support services. JobPath is just one part of the jigsaw. We are also expanding the capacity of other contracted employment services, such as the local employment services, job clubs and EmployAbility. These contracts are also being extended into next year. This will include the expansion of the footprint of community-based contract services, as I said earlier, with four new geographical areas where a local employment service does not currently exist. The Government is also expanding the capacity of job search support services provided by the Department of Social Protection's Intreo offices countrywide. An additional 300 staff will work in the Department in 2021, including expanding the capacity of the Intreo centres to provide employment services and supports with the assignment of an additional 100 job coaches. Recruitment for these posts has started and it is intended to fill these positions over the coming weeks.

The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is increasing investment in apprenticeship schemes, including the provision of incentives to employers to take on more apprentices, and short-term courses by investing in more than 35,000 new education and training places. Young jobseekers can now benefit from the JobsPlus scheme after being unemployed for four months instead of 12 months. We have made changes to the back to education and the back to work allowances. As part of the July stimulus we have opened access to these schemes to persons who have lost their jobs during the Covid pandemic by waiving the waiting period, which is between three and nine months in more normal circumstances. Persons who have temporarily lost their jobs during the Covid public health restrictions can also avail of part-time education programmes while continuing to receive the pandemic unemployment payment, and we discussed this earlier. I also spoke about the additional community employment and Tús places.

There is a bigger picture here and JobPath is only one part of the jigsaw. The total cost of the JobPath service to date is €244.7 million. The total number of people engaged to date is more than 280,000, giving a total cost per client of €873. Delivering 12 months of employment services engagement for this cost compares favourably with the cost of other public employment service provision and provides value for money.

This will go out to contract. Other providers now have time. It has been extended and it will go out to contract in late 2021 or 2022. Now is the time for all of the other providers to put their case together and prepare for the contract for this. I looked at this very carefully because I took on board the concerns of committee members, and I have heard various stories, but generally the figures I have received show complaints are low at only 1,267 complaints out of 280,000 participants, which is less than 0.5%. These are the figures I have been given. At the time we are in, it would not be wise to withdraw a full service such as this that has a role to play as part of a bigger picture. It will go out to contract at some stage next year and it will then be up to everybody interested in providing these services, whether community-based or whatever, to put in a bid to tender for this work.