Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To answer Deputy O'Dea's question, the performance targets and outputs for the working age employment supports are given in the brief to the committee. The outputs are things such as the movement of long-term unemployed people into employment, the reduction of the persistence rate, which is the rate at which short-term unemployed people become long-term unemployed, an increase in the exit rate for people on the live register for two years or more, long-term unemployed people referred to JobPath and the reduction in the overall ratio between youth unemployment and overall unemployment.

That shows the outturn for 2016 and also the performance indicators for 2017, which are relatively new.

Gateway is essentially being phased out. It was introduced as a recession measure when local authorities could not afford staff. We wanted to give people some work experience and have them do some useful work for the community as well. We are engaged in more general conversation with the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government and local authorities on having a division of Tús for local authorities. My preference is that local authorities would take on more outdoor staff, which some are doing, in fairness. There is also space for people to get work experience through Tús working for local authorities doing outdoor works and then go on from that to get a job with a local authority. At any job interview immediately after being asked for one's name, one is asked to outline their experience. It is not a bad idea to have some mechanism to give people experience working for a local authority to put them into a position to get the job when they subsequently apply for it. In Fingal County Council a number of people who started on Gateway have gone on to work for the local authority, which is very positive.

A few weeks ago I announced a number of changes to open CE to a wider pool of people. The consultation is ongoing at the moment with the supervisors and so on. The plan is to have them in place for June, so they will take effect quite soon. I would particularly like to see those exiting JobPath entering CE. Many people spend a year on JobPath and get employment, but more of them do not. I regard Tús people, who have tried the year with JobPath and have not got a job, as ideal candidates for CE. There are 30,000 of them each year, which should be enough to fill any vacancies that exist on CE schemes. I am trying to put in a better and more seamless engagement so that Intreo and my Department refer people on quickly to CE once people have been through JobPath and have not found a job.

I have committed to consider and make a decision over the summer on those aged over 55. In rural areas, although not just in rural areas, it can be very difficult for people in their late 50s and 60s to find employment. I would be open to relaxing the rules there to allow older workers - I do not like to describe 55 as older, but people in that age group from 55 to 66 - to perhaps stay on for longer. I am very open to that.

The CE numbers are down. I do not have the figures for before 2016. As the Deputy knows, they were low, they went up and then they started falling in line with the recession. The number of participants at the end of 2016 was 22,567. Actually I do have the figures. It was about 21,500 in 2012 and 21,400 in 2013. It went up to 23,000 in 2014; 22,000 in 2015; and 22,500 in 2016. These figures exclude supervisors. Our estimate for this year is a fall to 22,311. While it has gone down, it has not gone down dramatically when one hears those figures. We are providing funding to keep the numbers the same.

The numbers in Tús, Gateway and JobBridge are certainly going down. We are trying to maintain the numbers for CE. The overall number on schemes went up to about 36,000, but that includes those on Tús, Gateway and all the rest of it.

We are still working on a replacement programme for JobBridge. There has been consultation with unions and employers. I have outlined the basic principles that I want to apply - hat there would be a training element to it; that employers would make a contribution; and that it not be paid any less than the minimum wage for the hours worked. That is ongoing. We still intend to have it operational by the second half of this year. The question arises as to whether it is needed. While I am meeting some employers who would like to see it reinstated, I do not have a huge number of people clamouring at my door to have a replacement for JobBridge. We might do it in limited numbers and see how it goes.