Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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4. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the progress made on implementing Pathways to Work; the number of caseworkers currently working with long-term jobseekers to help them back to full employment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43771/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Pathways to Work represents the single biggest ever change to how the State engages with and provides services to people who are unemployed. It is delivering on the programme for Government commitment to set up a national employment and entitlements service and involves a multi-annual programme of organisational, process, people and work changes running to the end of 2014. We started in 2012 by rolling out the Intreo approach, including revamped offices, to improve how we engage with newly unemployed jobseekers through the use of individual profiling, group engagements, one-to-one interviews and personal progression planning. The first day a person signs on for jobseeker's allowance and receives a payment is also the first day we help him or her on the journey back to work.

In the six months to the end of June 2013, 62,300 people had attended group engagements, at which we inform people of the suite of assistance available, 83,000 people had attended initial one-to-one interviews and a further 78,700 had attended follow-up one-to one interviews. To date we have profiled more than 110,000 people on the live register and are on target to have profiled all people on the live register by the end of the year.

With regard to the long-term unemployed, we are prioritising access to schemes such as Tús, Community Employment and Gateway and training interventions such as MOMENTUM. They are also prioritised for referral to Local Employment Services, LES, and job clubs and have exclusive access to the new JobsPlus recruitment subsidy, which gives employers €300 cash back for employing somebody who has been unemployed for one year or more and €400 for somebody who has been unemployed for more than two years. Under JobsPlus we are incentivising employers to play an important part in helping people who are, unfortunately, on the live register, to get back to work.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

If they recruit people who are long-term unemployed, they receive a cash payment equivalent to about 25% of a typical starting salary. I have also established a new labour market council comprising employers, labour market experts and advocacy groups to advise the Department in the implementation and further development of such initiatives.

Our services for people who are long-term unemployed are managed by 300 full-time case officers in the Department, who also operate the new Intreo process, and by 150 employment mediators in the LES. In addition, we are redeploying a further 300 staff to help the long-term unemployed in 2013, of whom 160 have already been assigned and have commenced training, with a further 200 to be redeployed next year. This will more than double the number of staff.

The Department is at an advanced stage in the preparation of a tender to procure third-party services on a contracted basis to supplement its own resources. We have already engaged expert advisors to assist in the design of a contract model and issued a prior information notice and held engagement sessions with interested parties during the summer period. I expect the tender, which will be for a bespoke solution to suit the Irish labour market, to issue by the end of the year and contracted provision to be in place during 2014.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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I am aware that Pathways to Work is one of the centrepieces of Government policy. A European Commission report on the working of the system has been damning. It states:

Progress has not been sufficiently fast in light of the urgency and scale of the situation, however, and much more needs to be done...The pace of reforms and the resources mobilised, however, are at times insufficient given the scale and the urgency of the situation.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Deputy O'Dea referred to the OECD and troika report. That report began by saying that had the previous Government, of which the Deputy was a distinguished member for a long time, introduced any of the reforms with regard to helping people to get back to work, we would have entered the crisis with 100,000 fewer unemployed people. The report recognised that we began with the extraordinary legacy left by the Deputy's Government and that there had been almost no activation, particularly of people who are long-term unemployed.

In other countries such as France, labour market reforms were done very rapidly, and some of the reforms collapsed.

We are working on reforms which reflect Ireland and its people, the current position of the public and private sectors and large and small businesses. Recently I established a jobs council, the members of which are leading people from industry, the retail sector and areas such as information technology. The council is chaired by Mr. Martin Murphy, CEO of Hewlett Packard. Labour market economists and people from civil society organisations are also involved in helping people to get back to work. We will do this in a way that takes into account conditions in Ireland.

I do not know what the Deputy was hinting at or whether he was suggesting we should go down the route taken in the United Kingdom. I did not think that was Fianna Fáil's policy. We should take into account the needs of the unemployed. I anticipate that by next Monday, the live register will have fallen below 400,000 for the first time since May 2009. That is proof of what the OECD was talking about. When its secretary general visited Ireland recently, I spent the large part of a day with him and he was extremely complimentary about what we were doing.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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There is no doubt that the live register will continue to fall owing to the fact that one person leaves the country every six minutes to seek employment abroad. There has been significant talk recently about Dáil reform. When we submit questions, we are entitled to an answer. I asked the Minister specifically how many case workers were employed in this area and with how many clients each case worker should deal. What is the ratio? I also asked the Minister what progress had been made in outsourcing to the private sector which was announced as a significant initiative. However, so far it seems to be dead in the water.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Far from it. Some months ago we commissioned a consultancy to advise us on how we should tailor an Irish solution. This commission involved international experts, with the use of Irish expertise. Some months ago we issued a PIN notice, a notice of interest, and arranged a consultation with groups and organisations, both not-for-profit organisations and organisations in the private sector, which would be interested in providing services. The Deputy is correct in saying we have a number of Irish organisations such as the local employment services which are heavily involved in providing detailed and helpful assistance for people who are unemployed and which we hope to expand.

The details of the numbers of case workers were provided in my response. We have 300 full-time case officers in the Department who also manage the new Intreo process. We have 150 employment mediators in the local employment service. In addition, we are redeploying a further 300 staff to help the long-term unemployed. Some 160 of these staff have already been assigned and commenced training. A further 200 will be redeployed next year. This will more than double the number assigned as case workers, in line with the recommendations of both Irish and international experts.