Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As I stated, 12 Intreo offices are now completely live and at least another four are pretty much converted. I personally have visited most of them. Another 63 offices are to be rolled out by the end of 2014. I must confess to Deputy O'Dea that I must rely on the good offices of the Office of Public Works, because it is acting as the Department's agents in this conversion and at times, there are problems with IT lines, way-leaves and so on. Consequently, it is a highly exhaustive process.

In respect of the roll-out of the cards, I certainly invite the Deputy to get his personal services card and, yes, the Department started with new jobseekers because new people coming in have their photograph taken to a biometric standard. I understand the current figure has exceeded the 150,000 mark. Later this year, the Department hopes to bring the roll-out to, for instance, retired people and those in receipt of pensions. We intend to co-operate with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with regard to passports, although many pensioners seek to have a fresh photograph used for their personal services card. It also will contain data regarding free travel, as the personal services card is capable of holding a lot of data.

As for the targets in respect of activating people, I will provide the Deputy with a small example. The Passport Office was recruiting temporary employees some time ago and all 52 of the temporary vacancies were recruited from the live register. Eishtec in Waterford is expanding quite rapidly and our offices have been of enormous assistance to that firm in assisting people who have been unemployed in that region to apply for jobs. I am happy to note that quite a number of people have been successful. Similarly, companies such as PayPal have been involved. As the Deputy is aware, it is establishing more than 1,000 welcome jobs in Dundalk and again, the Department has been offering the company all its facilities and resources to assist in considering both the people coming out of college and those who already are working in the IT sector and the people on the live register who would make great employees. I hope this level of co-operation with companies will expand and develop, as it is the best way to get back to work as many people as possible who currently are unemployed.

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