Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 66: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans to intensify activation measures within her Department and in co-operation with FÁS in order that unemployed persons are fully supported in returning to work; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9230/10]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Activation initiatives are designed to assist and facilitate people on social welfare payments to return to the active labour force. The Government has a comprehensive approach to keeping as many people as possible in work. Protecting existing jobs and supporting the creation of new opportunities is a key priority and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment plays the central role in that regard.

Ensuring access to appropriate education and training initiatives to help jobseekers get back to work is also a major priority. The Government is now providing, through FÁS, a total of 147,000 training and activation places for jobseekers. In addition there were 166,000 places available, including additional provision, on education programmes in 2009, while the number of third level places has also increased dramatically over the past ten years.

While many people who lose their jobs will go on to new employment or take up education or training within three months, others will find themselves unemployed for a longer period and some will need targeted guidance and support in order to access new opportunities. Under the national employment action plan, NEAP, everyone who is approaching three months on the live register is identified by the Department of Social and Family Affairs and referred to FÁS for interview with a view to assisting them enter or re-enter the labour market. In the period from January to November 2009 80,967 people were referred to FÁS under the NEAP, an increase of 24,601, or 44%, over the same period in 2008.

The Department of Social and Family Affairs also provides jobseekers with one-to-one assistance through its facilitator service. Facilitators work closely with FÁS and other agencies at a local level and help jobseekers develop individual progression plans to enhance their skills and ultimately improve their employment chances. During 2009 21,500 people were referred to facilitators. Although the facilitator service is available to all jobseekers, the Government is conscious that people with low levels of education and those who have been unemployed for 12 months or more face particular difficulties in getting back into work. The back to education and back to work initiatives were designed to provide additional targeted supports to such groups. Approximately 20,800 people were in receipt of the back to education allowance on 31 December, 2009. This represents an increase of approximately 79% over the figure for 2008-09 academic year, which was 11,646. Last year we changed the back to work enterprise allowance to provide earlier access to it for those who want to commence a self employment business. We also introduced the short-term enterprise allowance.

A range of initiatives are in place to assist people who have just lost their jobs and to provide more targeted support for those who are more distant from the labour market. While activation programmes have been improved considerably over the past two years, they are being kept under review in light of the current economic circumstances to ensure that they are as effective as possible. New initiatives, such as a statistical profiling model for jobseekers, are also being developed at present to ensure that support is targeted at those who need it most.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I am glad to see the Minister is in a position to get such detailed answers to questions. We are in a bizarre situation when the Opposition is not able to get answers to parliamentary questions from the Department of Social and Family Affairs on behalf of constituents, while the Minister is still able to bring us that level of information. This begs a further series of questions.

I return to the issue of activation. Approximately two years ago, or shortly after we arrived in this position, I raised this matter with the Minister and have done so on several occasions since. The situation is that people in receipt of social welfare payments are going on FÁS courses. Some times the courses last two, three or four weeks and these people sign off social welfare and sign on with FÁS. They do their course, sign off FÁS and back onto social welfare. What has been done to address that situation? They get the same payment and sometimes may get an extra allowance from FÁS for child care. That is not an issue for the Minister. However, that amount of paperwork is a nonsense, particularly when we see the delays in our social welfare offices. That is one question.

Regarding the issue of activation, there are customers - there is a less polite name for them - of the Department who get a letter stating they have sought work. I spoke to an employer the other day who said,"I have this fellow back again for the third year in a row applying for a job. He knows there are no jobs here but he needs a letter for the Department". That is then accepted as his active seeking of work. Has the Minister done any investigation into the reality behind that situation?

The Minister will accept we are in a very changed environment. She made a statement in January welcoming the IBEC Gradlink programme, which I, too, very much welcome. Do the Minister and FÁS have any plans to put any other scheme in place for graduates who will not be able to avail of that programme but for whom the traditional type of FÁS course will not be of help?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I regret that parliamentary questions are not being answered. Unlike the information I have, which concerns general policy, Members of the Dáil tend to ask questions about individual persons. Rightly, I do not have access to that kind of information, and cannot facilitate Members.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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We cannot get answers to questions in any case.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I hope we can arrive at a situation where we can get the information for people and that the dispute can be resolved to everybody's satisfaction. However, I understand it is difficult for Deputies who are trying to get information on behalf of their constituents.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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This concerns the worst off in society.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The important thing is to ensure that payments are not affected. Some 1,200,000 payments are made every week by the Department and although we have issues concerning telephones not being answered or offices not being covered, claims are being taken and processed and money is being paid. That is the crucial element at this stage. However, I appreciate the frustration Deputies feel.

Regarding the questions raised by Deputy Enright, I was assured by the Secretary General that there is now a more streamlined payment process in place for people who go to FÁS for short courses and then return to welfare. That is a matter we would wish to keep under review but it was raised and discussed in the Chamber and I am assured now that the system is in place.

Local officers and offices have an obligation to ensure that people are actively seeking work and when people come to sign on they are expected to provide that information. It would be very helpful if the employer mentioned by the Deputy - there may well be others-----

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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There are very many.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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-----were to come along and say that such applicants know there are no jobs. In those circumstances employers should not give them a letter to satisfy their social welfare needs if they know it is not the result of any genuine effort to find work. The reality is there are not as many jobs available as there were but there is an obligation on the offices to seek the information. I shall certainly check the situation the Deputy described.

I refer to the graduate programme and Gradlink. We changed the criteria for our graduate programme on 1 December and that is having an effect. We are investigating it now and marketing it in a better way, using Facebook and other types of technology that graduates would be more likely to access rather than having a poster in the office. I particularly welcome the IBEC Gradlink programme because at the end of that placement graduates will not only have been able to maintain their social welfare benefits but will also get a recognition or certificate from IBEC stating they have experience in management. This will benefit people.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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We are out of time but I will take a brief supplementary.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I do not want to hear about a welcome for the IBEC programme. I want to know how the Minister will make her programme work better. The fact that persons will get their social welfare payment is not to the point. People have difficulties, whether of child care or in travel to work if it is any way distant. There is no recompense for that. The social welfare payment will not it possible for people to travel any great distance.

In summer 2008 the Minister announced a major initiative to tackle the number of young people who find themselves unemployed. That number has increased greatly since then. Are there any new initiatives to try to address this?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is right. In summer 2008 we brought together all the facilitators and organised a seminar for them on the education training opportunities and new initiatives that were available to ensure they had the top information to hand. In May 2009 we sent out information leaflets and documents to the under 25 age group advising them of education opportunities they might care to take up. It would be my intention to try to do something of that kind again in the coming months, especially prior to the next academic year. However, as I indicated, I am working also to see what changes can be brought about in the back to education allowance that might facilitate more people.