Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is not rocket science. The number of people who are unemployed has gone down by half. Unemployment was 15% and it is now approximately 7%, so of course the number of referrals has reduced. That is simple mathematics. There is half the number of unemployed people so obviously the number of referrals has gone down. As unemployment continues to fall, the number of referrals will continue to fall. However, we have not reduced the budget for the LES or reduced the number of case officers. The reason is that we want those who are still unemployed to get far more time and individual attention than they received previously. Moreover, they need it because the people who are still unemployed are those who are most distant from the labour market and require far more one-to-one attention. That is what we want from the local employment services. We want them to have a smaller caseload and the case officers to have fewer people on their books but to work with them longer and harder, because they are the people who need the extra support.

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