Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Job clubs provide a valuable service to supplement the Department’s own employment services, particularly with regard to the provision of job search and CV preparation workshops for unemployed people. Job clubs accepted approximately 14,000 referrals of individual jobseekers from the Department in 2012. In addition, they provided a walk-in resource service to people in their community. The annual budget for the support of job clubs in 2013 is €6 million, an increase of 5% on the 2012 allocation. I have had the opportunity to visit a number of job clubs and believe well run job clubs have an important role to play. I commend a number of the job clubs I have had the honour to visit.

The Department has annual contracts for the provision of job club services with over 40 companies. Each contract is reviewed on an annual basis. As part of the review process, the Department undertakes a structured appraisal of that provider's performance with each element of provider performance being scored against a common rating scale used to assess all job clubs.

The elements scored include conformance with good corporate governance and achievement of service and progression outcomes. Following an evaluation of Bawnogue Unemployed Group Limited, the Department did not believe it could justify the renewal of the contract. It notified Bawnogue Unemployment Group Limited of this decision in January 2013. The annual contract with Bawnogue Unemployed Group Limited subsequently expired on 29 March 2013. It was fully funded by the Department up to that date. The Department is considering alternative arrangements for the provision of jobs club services in the area. It is delivering employment services in the area through the local employment service's Bawnogue office and the Department's employment service office in Clondalkin. As the Department is not the employer, salaries and redundancy payments are matters for the company to address. Obviously, statutory redundancy payments are handled by the Department.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

If a company or employer is unable to pay statutory redundancy to its employees, it is open to them to avail of the Department's redundancy and insolvency payments scheme, details of which are available on the Department's website. The Department is committed to the provision of quality jobs club services. It will continue to evaluate jobs clubs to ensure the funds disbursed to fund their services are properly and effectively discharged to provide effective services to jobseekers and facilitate the continuous improvement of the service.

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