Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his congratulations to myself and the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys.

I welcome the establishment of the new network of 31 local enterprise offices. These will be the key mechanism through which people will connect at local level with all the appropriate information that they need in order to start, grow and succeed in business. As part of Pathways to Work, we are also working to enhance the co-ordination of activities across all State organisations which deal with employers. In this context, a protocol of co-operation was signed in November 2013 between the Department, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and all of the enterprise development agencies, not only the local enterprise offices, LEOs, but also Enterprise Ireland and the IDA. A briefing for Department's regional managers and their LEO counterparts was held in Dublin Castle last February. The briefing was attended by top management from all of the relevant Departments and the education and training boards and senior management from the various enterprise agencies, including the IDA and Enterprise Ireland.

From the Department's perspective, the aim of this interaction is to maximise the opportunities for the recruitment of jobseekers from the live register to facilitate the taking up of self-employment and to ensure that their companies are properly informed of, and have access to, the employment supports provided by my Department. These actions are delivered at a local and regional level between the Department's operating divisions and its enterprise agency counterparts, including the LEOs.

The Department's employer pack contains information on the range of supports and services provided by the Department, including the back-to-work enterprise allowance, which is very popular. At any one time, approximately 10,000 people are exercising that option. It is for people who wish to become self-employed or to start their own businesses on a slightly bigger scale. There are more than 10,000 persons starting up businesses supported by this payment from the Department. In addition, other supports are available such as JobPlus which provides incentives to employers to recruit the long-term unemployed as well as JobBridge. I am very open to better and to more co-operation.

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