Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

Previously, before the new systems were put in place, there was a process of referral under the national employment action plan, NEAP, which meant that somebody who was on the live register for three months or more was referred to an interview with FÁS employment services, as it was then. The kind of figures the Deputy is mentioning would have come from an analysis of the level of engagement under that particular programme.

Since the responsibility for FÁS employment services was transferred to the Department, we have been considerably ratcheting up the level of engagement we have with people joining the live register. The introduction of the penalty regime has influenced circumstances also, but the expectation of engagement has also changed. Previously, somebody entering the live register would not have expected - and there would have been no particular reason - to be called for an interview, other than a signing-on process, whereas now, somebody who comes into a new Intreo office is immediately profiled. They are also scheduled for a group engagement session, depending on the profile that emerges from the profiling data that have been taken. That group engagement session can happen within a matter of days or weeks. Following on from that, there are one-to-one interviews, so it is a much more intensive engagement.