Ms Bríd O'Brien:

I thank the Chairman and the committee for the invitation. As the committee is keenly aware, there are a number of reasons people would not be on the live register. They may be in receipt of another payment, such as a disability payment, a lone parent family payment or a jobseeker's benefit payment, but may not have met the means test criteria, or they may have been self-employed and did not meet the mean test criteria and, therefore, did not gain access to a jobseeker's allowance payment or they may be a qualified adult to another person's payment. For all these reasons, accessing the services that have been rolled out recently to people on the live register are not available to those groups.

It is an issue that was raised at our annual delegate conference in 2011 where the general branch, which is the part of the organisation that represents unemployed people who can be in receipt of all the aforementioned payments or none, was to ensure access for unemployed people not included in the live register to the full range of employment, training and education supports, including training allowances and other supports. The call was that the full service would be available to everybody of working age. We regard this as a matter that needs to be addressed urgently and, in particular, must be included in Pathways to Work 2016-2010. Access to programmes must be based on wider criteria than a person's live register status. Programme participants must be given the wherewithal to support their engagement. Also, the public employment service, which is the responsibility of the Department, must develop the capacity to respond to the needs of all people of working age seeking employment.

As the committee is aware, up to budget 2010 people could access a FÁS training scheme and a training allowance, which ceased in that budget, of €204.30. In subsequent budgets, the amount was cut and now stands at €188 for anybody on the live register. That is a single payment. For those aged 25 and under, the maximum payment is €160. We are concerned at the level of that payment. For those on the live register who can access these supports, we would regard them as insufficient to meet people's needs. Currently, unemployed people not on the live register can access a very limited range of supports. A limited walk-in service is available at some Intreo offices but in our experience it does not always materialise. Clarity is needed on this issue in order that people know where they stand and what they can access.

Since 2010, the activation landscape has changed considerably with FÁS employment and community services being the responsibility of the Department of Social Protection, its training services are with education and training boards and oversight for further education and training rests with SOLAS. Those are very significant changes that have taken place.

In 2012, the Government published Pathways to Work, which has been revisited in 2013 and 2015. There are five strands to it. In the most recent reiteration, the strands were listed as incentivising employers to provide more jobs for people who are unemployed, better engagement with unemployed people, greater targeting of activation places and opportunities for those who are long-term unemployed, incentivising the take-up of employment opportunities by unemployed jobseekers, and completing the reform agenda. It is interesting to note that in 2012, when Pathways to Work was first published, regular engagement with unemployed people was first on the list while engaging with employers was fourth on the list.

As a member of the labour market council, the INOU is aware of the increased engagement with employers, which we regard as critical to ensuring the employment needs of unemployed people are met, and the roll-out of the employment and youth activation charter to give an impetus to this work. However, we are concerned that much of the focus has been on the larger employers when in the Irish labour market smaller employers are a key employer. There is a challenge around how smaller employers are engaged with and, in particular, how the local Intreo office is engaging with local employers and encouraging them to look to the live register and to look to employ people not on the live register as potential employees.

The feedback we have had is that the experience of some smaller employers has been less than positive in that regard, which needs to be addressed.

As we have noted, a criticism of the Pathways to Work strategy has been its sole focus on the live register and not focusing on everybody of working age, as it needs to. That needs to be addressed. One of the concerns we have about the one-parent family payment, which has not been included in the presentation because we presumed colleagues in the National Women's Council of Ireland would address it, is that people have been taken from one payment and slotted or almost slotted into another. The terms and conditions for the jobseeker's allowance are not as good as they would have been for people on the one-parent family payment, particularly those making the welfare to work journey. That is not the way to proceed and we need an inclusive employment service that can adapt and address the needs of people looking to that service for support, with the capacity to do so. That issue should be addressed in the forthcoming Pathways to Work scheme.

The current scheme has an action around developing and evaluating options to extend employment services to people not on the live register and to improve the promotion and communication of existing activation options. It is important that further work should be done in this regard, meaning it will be embedded very clearly and in strong language around equality and social inclusion, in the coming Pathways to Work document.

To address people's concerns, the coming Pathways to Work document should detail how it will incorporate positive duty. That is something we would very much like to see implemented. It arises from the Act that established the Equality and Human Rights Commission. It is very much a duty on public sector bodies to spell out how they will deal with and eliminate discrimination, and how they will ensure that people accessing services and employed in the bodies will not face discrimination. That puts a duty on the Department and Pathways to Work to consider how its design can be inclusive of everybody and not be discriminatory. That would be very important.

In rolling out and providing the best services to people, it is very important that the front-line staff have the capacity and knowledge to develop the service and match people with the most appropriate opportunity. We remain concerned that this is not always the case and people may not always get the opportunity to avail of services and supports that would be relevant to them, helping them access a job. A critical part of this is developing a service that is person-centred and which has the capacity to get to know the person, meet their needs and assess options. Some people are closer to the labour market than others. What role does education and training play in meeting those needs and what role do employment programmes fill? When people have engaged in activation measures, what happens next and how can the service support people in accessing a decent job?

In August, the Central Statistics Office published work relating to equality grounds from the quarterly national household survey. As members no doubt know, the equality grounds in the Employment Equality Act and Equal Status Act were used and even though unemployment, per se, economic status or social origin are not among the grounds in the equality legislation, people's employment status was used. As a result, the second-highest reported issue that came to the fore was unemployment. Of people reporting discrimination, 23% reported discrimination because they were unemployed. These people may be in receipt of a payment, such as a working age payment or a jobseeker's payment. That is a challenge to be addressed. The highest reported issue at 28% came from people of non-white ethnic backgrounds, who reported experience of discrimination. In examining those figures, it is striking that a higher proportion of men highlighted discrimination when seeking work, at 31%, whereas for women the experience tended to be more in the workplace. These are issues that need to be addressed.

Similarly, age is an issue raised with us by people who are long-term unemployed and older. They may be well-qualified with good experience but find it very difficult to access employment because of ageism in the labour market.

There are issues we can consider that Ireland has been actively involved with at the United Nations and to which it has signed up. We can take these on board to try to create a recovery that is inclusive of everybody. I am talking about the 17 sustainable development goals. Of particular interest to us is goal 4, which relates to inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities. Lifelong learning is particularly critical for people who may be on the margins of the labour market and who have experience of low-paid welfare. Goal 8 speaks of promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, with goal 10 aiming to reduce inequality within and among countries. As part of that goal, target 10.2 seeks to "empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status". Likewise, target 10.3 strives to "ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard". It is critical to be mindful of those goals as we seek to address the issue before us today and look to the rolling out and development of a new Pathways to Work document. We must ensure that the employment service we are creating is first class and inclusive of everybody of working age looking to it for support.

I thank the committee for its time.