Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The figures the Deputy refers to relate to services provided to more than 295,000 jobseekers. As I said, their success rate in getting and keeping jobs is better than with some of the other services. Now is not the time to cut employment support services of any kind. We face record unemployment as a result of the pandemic. There are currently 363,000 people on the PUP and another 177,000 on the live register. There are a number of different approaches to this. There are the local employment services, JobPath and the Intreo offices. As we face challenges and as the restrictions are lifted and people get back to work, I believe there will be challenges for those who do not get their jobs back. We need to support them in every single way we can to help them find employment that is suited to them. As I said, now is not the time to reduce the service levels. We are expanding the local employment services into a number of new geographical areas.

See this speech in context