Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 4: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the progress made in developing the Pathways to Work plan; if private contractors will be used; if any personnel training, personnel adjustments and redeployments are planned; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20722/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Pathways to Work initiative has been developed to deliver a new approach to the provision of services to unemployed people. The key objective is to deliver a service that supports people who are unemployed to find a pathway back to employment and thereby reduce both the average duration of unemployment and the number of people who are long-term unemployed. A detailed project plan for the establishment of the new service was approved by the Government and published in June of last year, and I am pleased to say the Department has made significant progress in implementing this plan. The next significant milestone is the pilot implementation of a new one-stop-shop or integrated service in four offices, and I expect these to be implemented, on schedule, in May or June this year. They are already being rolled out on a pilot basis.

The new service will be staffed by people currently working within the Department, including the approximately 1,700 staff who recently transferred into the Department from FÁS and the community welfare service and who bring with them significant experience in the one-to-one case management of clients. Approximately 400 of the staff who transferred are involved in the activation of unemployed people. We have taken over the local employment services, which have particular expertise in this area. Most of the transferred staff have received professional training in employment guidance. Many of the 1,000 staff of the community welfare service have experience of working in a case-management capacity. I acknowledge that, given the level of unemployment, additional staff will need to be deployed to activation or case-management activities and that appropriate training will be required for staff with such duties. In this regard, the Department has its own in-house staff development unit. The unit will take the lead in developing and organising the relevant training. Initially, training will focus on the competencies deemed necessary for the case-management role.

It is unlikely, however, that redeployment within the Department or even from the wider public service will provide sufficient staff to fully resource the new service. Accordingly, in the context of the Croke Park agreement, we will probably have to stop sub-contracting case management and activation services.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister just about squeezed in the last little bit when she mentioned private contractors doing some of the work. Could she give us a little more detail on what is intended by this? Given the importance of addressing unemployment, is there not a case to be made for partly lifting the recruitment embargo in this area?

The Minister stated approximately 9,000 people are to leave the public service this year. Approximately 4,000 are to be re-employed. Some are teachers and some are in the health area. There is definitely a case for helping people to return to work. This could comprise one of the most productive areas.

The Minister stated four offices are to be up and running in May and June. Which offices are these? Will the Minister give us information on the professional training that has already been carried out by some of her staff? Has any of this training been done externally to date? What contractors were used and what was the procurement method? Are private contractors being asked by the Minister to do some, quite a lot or all of this work?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Work on the possible involvement of private sector providers, which is very complex, especially in regard to the payment basis and avoiding dead-weight effects, is ongoing within my Department. This work will be done within the framework of the Croke Park agreement. We are examining this area in depth. One should bear in mind that there are organisations, including Rehab, that provide employment services, and I am sure the Deputy is familiar with them. There are also local employment services which provide dedicated employment services through local companies.

The key is to develop models that offer good services to people who are trying to return to education, training and, ultimately, employment.

That is where the focus will be when we have completed the work on this. One must remember that we are just setting up, have just taken in those involved in FÁS and the community welfare and are setting up the pilots for the roll out. We have already been doing it on a pilot basis. We will set those up in May and June so I will come back to the Deputy when we have more advanced work done on this.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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In regard to the private trainers the Minister will involve in this process, I understand from some of the people in the industry that there will probably be a condition in those contracts that a certain percentage of people being trained end up in further education or in employment or there will be a penalty in regard to the payment to them if they do not achieve that. Will there be a parallel mechanism for in-house staff doing the same work as external contractors? If that benchmark is being used for external contractors, the public service would want to see the same standard being applied to it.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I appreciate what the Deputy has said but he should bear in mind what I said. The people who have come from FÁS and the community welfare service have, in many cases, already got training experience and experience of one-to-one dealings with individuals, either in the community welfare office or the FÁS employment services. The Department also has in-house training. We must provide an integrated service - this is where the change is - so when one goes in to sign on for a benefit or an allowance, one is also given help and assistance.

The issue in regard to the private sector would have to be worked out in detail. We have seen different models in different countries. As I said, we have a number of private providers in Ireland and there is often co-operation at an informal level.

One of my concerns is that the old FÁS did not have a sufficient level of engagement with employers. If there were a couple of vacancies in, say, Tullamore or Roscommon, it is really important that the local employer goes to the employment office to say he or she requires two or three people. We must ensure people who are on the unemployment register have a reasonable opportunity to go forward for those jobs.

We must rebuild the relationship, in particular at a local level and a regional level with employers on the ground so that vacancies are notified. That is one area which fell back with the damage done to FÁS. Many employers simply do not think of going to FÁS. We must build that relationship back up from the ground and I am really anxious to do that.