Ms Anne Vaughan:

As members of the committee will be aware, Pathways to Work, hereafter Pathways, was first launched in 2012 to cover the period 2012 to 2015. In tandem with the Action Plan for Jobs, Pathways is intended to address the challenge posed by the dramatic rise in the level of unemployment during the recession. Put simply, the purpose of the Action Plan for Jobs is to stimulate growth in employment, while the purpose of Pathways is to direct this growth towards people on the live register. To this end the Government, under Pathways, committed to a number of ambitious process, organisation and policy reforms designed to deliver on a number of aggressive targets. These included, for example, a target to move 75,000 people who were long-term unemployed at the start of 2012 into employment by the end of 2015 and a target to achieve a 50% increase in the progression rate of people who are more than two years unemployed.

To date, the Pathways programme has delivered on a number of significant reforms. I will not list them all here, but will mention a few. They include the integration of three previously separate organisations – the Community Welfare Service, FÁS employment services, and Department of Social Protection income support services - into the one-stop-shop Intreo service provided by the Department of Social Protection; the re-organisation of State’s further education and training services through the creation of education and training boards, ETBs, and SOLAS; the development of a new operating model as part of Intreo that has yielded significant reductions in claim processing times and faster and more systematic provision of employment services; the provision or refurbishment of 44 new Intreo offices around the country, with a further 16 to be completed over the coming months; the introduction of a social contract of rights and responsibilities between jobseekers and the State, through the record of mutual commitment; the formation of a labour market council of industry leaders and labour market specialists to monitor and advise on the implementation of Pathways; the establishment of employer services division within the Department - this division works closely with employers, both on a one-to-one basis and through events such as JobsWeek or agencies such as Skillnets, to promote recruitment from the live register; the introduction and-or roll-out of new services such as JobsPlus, TÚS, Gateway, JobBridge and Momentum; and the design and the procurement of a new contracted model of employment service delivery - JobPath

There are definite signs that these changes are having an impact in improving the employment prospects of people who are unemployed. At a macro level official figures from the CSO show that. The unemployment rate has fallen to 11.1%, the lowest rate in five years and down from a peak of just over 15% in 2011. The long-term unemployment rate fell to 6.8% in mid-2014, down from 9.2% in mid-2012. The number of long-term unemployed people has fallen from over 200,000 in early 2012 to under 150,000 at present. The youth unemployment rate has fallen to 27%, down from a peak of 33% in mid-2012, while in absolute terms the number of young people unemployed was down by 21,400 from 74,000 to 52,600 over the same period.

Members will be aware that there is a wide consensus among forecasters that these positive trends are set to continue with the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, for example, forecasting that unemployment will fall to 9.6% on average next year. With regard to the specific targets identified in Pathways to Work, over 55,000 people who were long-term unemployed at the start of 2012 have now moved into employment while the progression rate of people who were more than two years unemployed has already reached the target level of 40%. This level of performance is attributable at least in part to the measures taken under the Pathways programme, for example, we know that over 60% of people who find employment under the JobsPlus scheme were more than two years unemployed; similarly, progression rates under JobBridge are some 60% and under Momentum they are approximately 40%. These reflect the impact these services can make on the prospects of people who have had prolonged periods of unemployment. In addition, we know our engagement with employers has resulted in the successful placement into employment of people from the live register into companies such as Eishtec, PayPal, and HP, to name but a few.

The purpose of Pathways to Work 2015, published last week, is to set out those actions that it is intended to take over the next 15 months to maintain the momentum and complete the programme of reforms set out in 2012. This updated Pathways statement takes particular account of input and advice from the Labour Market Council and places a focus on the development and implementation of an account management approach to help enhance the provision of services to employers, as a means of securing employment opportunities for unemployed jobseekers; the full implementation of Youth Guarantee initiatives including the developmental internship, which is an enhanced JobsPlus offer for young people and reserved places on training programmes; the introduction of a back to work family dividend, to improve the financial benefit of employment for unemployed people with families; the measurement and publication of performance statistics for each individual Intreo office; the implementation and roll-out of JobPath as a means of augmenting the resources available to provide services to unemployed jobseekers; and the commissioning of a robust evaluation of the various Pathways initiatives to inform future policy direction.

In addition, in anticipation of continued employment growth and reductions in unemployment, Pathways 2015 commits to the development and evaluation of options to extend the range of activation services available to people who, although not in employment, are not on the live register.

I understand that the committee has expressed an interest in receiving additional information on JobPath and accordingly my colleague, Mr. John McKeon, will present this subject.