Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Department launched Intreo in 2012 to provide a new integrated public employment service whereby people looking for work can access income support and employment services.

This involved the merger of community welfare services, Department of Social Protection jobseeker income support services and the former FÁS employment and community services divisions. As part of this service integration, the Department located service provision for all of these services in new or refurbished Intreo centres, providing a much improved customer service environment. I recall that the Deputy attended the launch of the Intreo office in Galway. It is a very fine office and gives people the respect, dignity and space they deserve. It also successfully developed and implemented a range of new service processes, including profiling of jobseekers, group information sessions and case management, and, in parallel, established a new employer relations division. This division works with employers to encourage them to recruit staff from the live register.

When opening the new Balbriggan office last week, I was very pleased to hear that a number of employers in Dublin Airport are now using the services of the Intreo offices in Balbriggan and Swords to source additional employees. This is central to the service Intreo is designed to provide and has contributed to a significant increase in employment in recent years. There are a number of measures for jobseekers, such as JobBridge, JobsPlus, TÚS, Gateway and the back to work family dividend, which was introduced last year, all of which have contributed to a reduction of about 40% in the unemployment rate since 2012. The impact of all these changes is also seen in the much improved service processing times, the early and more frequent engagement of jobseekers in the activation process and the high levels of customer satisfaction reported through an independent customer survey.

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