Ms Anne Vaughan:

I thank the members. In case they think I am avoiding questions, I will go through as many as I can deal with, Mr. McKeon will look after JobPath and Mr. Corcoran will look after questions relating to the Youth Guarantee and employment-unemployment trends. If we have not reached any of the questions, members can come back to us. I will reply in the order questions were asked and I hope I will not repeat myself.

I thank members for their comments about our Intreo service. Intreo is a catch-all name for the entire revised service to deliver payments, supports and services. It is a service but the setting up of the Intreo offices involves three aspects, the first of which is the physical works in an office. Ideally, where we can, we do an office over one site, but we have had to use two sites in some locations. One hopes they are not far from each other. Second, there is an IT infrastructure and then there is the issue of the amalgamation of staff and the kitting out of offices. It is quite logistical. I ask people to bear with us while we do all the offices.

We have more than 60 offices and we still have 16 to do. We hope to complete them in the coming months. We will not have them all done by the end of the year because it is not physically possible. It may sound a little odd but I cannot say which ones will and will not be done. It is a joint effort between us and the Office of Public Works and sometimes when we think we are almost there and we are ready to go, something happens. It could be something to do with planning, the bank or a landlord. I do not want to say for definite, therefore, that any office that has not been done yet will be done. They will be big achievements when we land them. For example, we hope to have completed Cork by the end of the year. Our largest office is in Cork and we are splitting that in two, north and south of the River Lee. That will give us two Intreo centres and it is hoped that will happen before the end of the year. The position is similar in Galway. It may trip over into January. They will be two big achievements. I can supply the list of what is done and what is to come. People will be aware of the offices that have been done. The OPW and I are reasonably confident we will have them all done and dusted bar one or two by the end of the first quarter next year. I emphasise that services are being delivered, although not in the Intreo setting. The group engagements and the one-on-ones and other services are being provided. We also have plans in train to deliver the same Intreo service in as many of our branch offices as we can, and that is important for members in more rural areas where we deliver a contract service through these offices.

I take Deputy Ó Snodaigh's point regarding JobBridge and we will investigate it. We are trying in all cases to ensure internships that are advertised meet the strict criteria we have set down. We follow up with inspections. We have done approximately 8,000 inspections but we will investigate. Mr. McKeon can say a little more about what we did in a particular area related to cleaning that came to our attention recently.

If we get it wrong in certain areas, we get it wrong and we apologise. However, as a whole, the JobBridge initiative is highly successful and very useful to people at all levels of educational attainment. We may have to agree to differ on some of this but we certainly will take up the matter the Deputy has brought to our attention. Deputy Joan Collins asked me about Intreo and I believe I have answered that. Yes, the staffing levels will be commensurate with what is required. They are tight in certain areas where we perhaps find it more difficult to get staff purely because of geography.

To be clear on this point, Senator Moloney of course is right that the new back-to-work family dividend the Tánaiste has announced will not be taken into account in the calculation of family income supplement, FIS. I confirm the Senator's observation is correct. Its purpose is to increase the incentive to people with families to take up employment. While I must talk to the Senator separately in this regard, to my knowledge it is not difficult to re-sign. The Senator must tell me which Intreo office she considers to be difficult. She can do that off-line with me and I will follow that up. It used to be the case but is no longer. I have come before this joint committee numerous times and have assured members that we have sorted that out. However, if we have not done so in a particular area, the Senator might talk to me afterwards about it. I thank her.

Was the Senator's issue with FIS to do with the application form or that one cannot add on a child?