Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Jim Daly for raising this important matter. Support for job creation is central to Government policy at all times, and particularly in times of high unemployment. The employer job PRSI scheme and the Revenue job assist scheme are aimed at incentivising employers. As the Deputy has pointed out, neither of these schemes achieved a high level of utilisation. Both schemes were designed primarily to incentivise job creation with the secondary objective of targeting recruitment of those on the live register. As the Deputy has rightly pointed out, take up has been disappointing low. In 2012 for example, the employer job PRSI scheme was awarded in respect of only 1,072 employees with fewer than 900 businesses applying. The numbers were even lower in 2011, with 923 employees benefiting.

Since coming into office, the Government has been engaged in a persistent and focused series of reviews of all programme and schemes aimed at supporting employment and the unemployed. We have worked to identify improved practices that allow for greater quality outputs. The job assist and PRSI exemption scheme were commonly criticised for being complicated, suffered the perception of having burdensome administrative practices and were viewed as difficult to access. A recent IBEC survey of employers' sentiment indicated this perception predominantly obtained among employers who had not applied for the schemes, while feedback from employers who benefited from them was positive. Irrespective about whether such accusations are true, the existing schemes did not attract sufficient support and called for a fresh view to be taken. I compliment the Deputy on his own work in bringing forward new proposals.

The Government has decided that a new simplified incentive scheme should be developed. JobsPlus is therefore being introduced on a pilot basis with effect from early July and will replace the existing schemes. JobsPlus has been included as one of the disruptive measures in the action plan for jobs 2013. The plan outlines seven high impact reforms with highly ambitious deadlines. In line with what the Deputy has set out in his proposals for A Ticket to Work, JobsPlus is to provide a simple, easily accessible and understood cash based incentive to get employers to recruit full-time permanent employees from the live register. As it is cash based, it will aid a business's cash flow by providing a steady flow of payments each month for two years. If a business recruits a person who has been unemployed for 24 months from the live register, the employer will receive a cash grant of €10,000 over two years. If a business recruits a person who has been unemployed for between 12 and 24 months, the employer will receive a cash grant of €7,500 over two years. The initial budget allocation for this scheme is €21.25 million over three years.

If given a chance, and if we can convince business owners and employers to engage, JobsPlus will be successful but we need real engagement and a better connection than we have had heretofore with employers both nationally and locally. Key among our tasks is to target and convince the decision makers within businesses to take notice of the incentives on offer and to look to those they previously may not have considered for employment. I welcome the Deputy's work in this area and I will be interested in his engagement in monitoring the roll-out and implementation of the JobsPlus during this pilot phase.

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