Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I often find that my head is spinning following a contribution by Deputy McGrath. I will enlighten him regarding Intreo offices. They are working well and the group engagements have been beneficial to those who have participated in them, as they have led to progression plans and so on. We are active in County Tipperary engaging with employers to make sure they are aware of all the schemes, benefits and 80 additional steps to help SMEs. I hope the Deputy will assist us in making sure employers know about the benefits of JobsPlus and so on. A number of employers are participating in the scheme but it needs to be promoted more and perhaps the Deputy will play an active role in this. We doubled the number of JobsPlus places in budget 2015 from 3,000 to 6,000 and more than 2,000 people have taken up a place.

I spent time in County Tipperary recently. The Deputy referred to resource centres being under attack and so on. I visited some good centres, which are playing a positive role. I have worked on the CE and Gateway schemes and they have an important role in the county. That is evident in the Tidy Towns scheme as people progress from it.

I certainly hope the Deputy will go back to Tipperary after today's debate and encourage small and medium-sized businesses to get involved in their local Intreo and Department of Social Protection centres and thereby make sure people on the live register have an opportunity to get back into work. I was keen to reply to the Deputy immediately and in his presence because I knew he probably wanted to head off because he is busy with engagements.

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