Mr. John McKeon:

I will try to deal with the questions in order. Deputy O'Dea raised the issue of pay. First, the increase in employment is 4.5%. The number is 80,000, which is 4.5%. I do not have the figures for the national accounts on what the total increase in salaries is. That is something that the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation looks after. I would not expect a huge increase in pay as a consequence, particularly when most jobs created are at entry level. Jobs might have been lost at one level, but as the economy recovers new jobs will typically be at entry level. I am aware that the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, as part of the jobs action plan, is establishing a low pay commission. I understand this is in the process of being established. Obviously the Government is looking at this and it is a question of policy in terms of how the Government responds on this.

In regard to square pegs in round holes, an important point that sometimes gets lost in discussion is that when job seekers come to the Department they have a range of competencies and abilities that would be suitable for certain types of jobs. However, they may have aspirations to a different type of job. Our first objective is to get them back into work. All of the evidence shows that getting somebody back into work is the best option for their long-term interests. In a situation where somebody says they are unemployed but would like to shift career, we make no apology for telling them there are currently jobs available that they could apply for and asking them to apply for them. This sometimes causes friction. We would not be looking to put a square peg in a round hole, but we are saying: "You are a square peg; there is a square hole." To make a crude analogy, we suggest that if the person wants to turn into a diamond-shaped peg, that is grand and we will work with them, but we will ask them to try the square hole first. I believe it is important that we say this.

In regard to JobsPlus, the budget provision for this year has been increased to 6,000 jobs from the previous 3,000, and there is provision to review that during the year. If the take-up exceeds the provision, we will consider whether it is appropriate to revise the cap. I do not have the figures on the youth guarantee with me, so I ask forgiveness if I am wrong, but I am fairly sure what I am about to say is accurate. In 2014, approximately 20,500 young people have availed of places which are part of the youth guarantee approach. At the end of the year, we announced and will formally start a hard drive on the developmental internship, which will be called First Steps, and on the enhanced version of JobsPlus for young people. Therefore, these numbers will increase in 2015. We are working on compiling performance statistics currently and will run them for approximately six months in the Department to check their reliability and the variability from month to month. We will probably start to publish them in the second half of the year.

A question was asked about restructuring group engagement. Although it was a small survey, the evidence from the INOU report is that the majority of people were happy with their case officer interactions, but perhaps less happy with the group engagement, probably because they had unrealistic expectations of the group engagement. This is primarily an information session, to tell clients they will be moving to a one-to-one engagement process with a case officer, what they can expect to happen and that we will produce a personal progression plan. We are now changing the letter that is sent to clients informing them of this, so that they are aware when they attend what they are coming to. We are changing it from a "group engagement" to a "group information session", which will hopefully address the issue.

On the selection of staff, I will ask Mr. Spellman to talk about that because he runs a region with a lot of staff involved. By and large, we do our best to assign staff to appropriate roles.