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

As I said, we have been through this on a number of occasions. The Deputy has one view and I have a set of figures. JobPath is a mechanism through which support is provided to long-term unemployed jobseekers through access to employment assistance and advice for a period of 12 months. It follows a payment-by-results model and is associated with day-to-day operational costs. The risks were borne by the contractors. They are paid on the basis of performance and, with the exception of the initial registration fee, payments are made only when a client achieves sustained full-time employment. Job sustainment fees are payable for each of the 13-week periods of sustained employment, up to a maximum of 52 weeks. As of the end of January, some 351,273 jobseekers had commenced engagement with the JobPath service. In the same period, 87,528 jobseekers had commenced employment during their engagement with JobPath. As I said, my Department is currently doing a full review of the national employment strategy, Pathways to Work, because that strategy was launched during the pandemic when we thought we were going to have high levels of unemployment. We are in a different landscape now so we need to review Pathways to Work in the context of an economy that is at full employment.

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