Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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69. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the level of engagement between her Department and its local offices and the newly established local enterprise offices in terms of assisting person with securing employment or support for establishing a new business; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30896/14]

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I too congratulate the Minister on her appointment as Tánaiste and Deputy Kevin Humphreys on his appointment as Minister of State. I wish to ask the Tánaiste about the level of engagement between her Department and its local offices and the newly established local enterprise offices in terms of assisting persons with securing employment or establishing a new business.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy for his congratulations to myself and the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys.

I welcome the establishment of the new network of 31 local enterprise offices. These will be the key mechanism through which people will connect at local level with all the appropriate information that they need in order to start, grow and succeed in business. As part of Pathways to Work, we are also working to enhance the co-ordination of activities across all State organisations which deal with employers. In this context, a protocol of co-operation was signed in November 2013 between the Department, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and all of the enterprise development agencies, not only the local enterprise offices, LEOs, but also Enterprise Ireland and the IDA. A briefing for Department's regional managers and their LEO counterparts was held in Dublin Castle last February. The briefing was attended by top management from all of the relevant Departments and the education and training boards and senior management from the various enterprise agencies, including the IDA and Enterprise Ireland.

From the Department's perspective, the aim of this interaction is to maximise the opportunities for the recruitment of jobseekers from the live register to facilitate the taking up of self-employment and to ensure that their companies are properly informed of, and have access to, the employment supports provided by my Department. These actions are delivered at a local and regional level between the Department's operating divisions and its enterprise agency counterparts, including the LEOs.

The Department's employer pack contains information on the range of supports and services provided by the Department, including the back-to-work enterprise allowance, which is very popular. At any one time, approximately 10,000 people are exercising that option. It is for people who wish to become self-employed or to start their own businesses on a slightly bigger scale. There are more than 10,000 persons starting up businesses supported by this payment from the Department. In addition, other supports are available such as JobPlus which provides incentives to employers to recruit the long-term unemployed as well as JobBridge. I am very open to better and to more co-operation.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for her response. I welcome the agreement between the Department, local enterprise offices, IDA Ireland, education and training boards, and Enterprise Ireland. Is she confident this arrangement is working on the ground? Is she confident someone on social welfare assistance can get back into it if their new employment or business does not work out? Recently, I was dealing with an individual who got a short period of employment but could not get through to the social welfare office in Galway on the 1890 500 800 number. His claim was eventually stopped and it took some time to get it restarted. There was talk about introducing a text system for those social welfare recipients who get short periods of employment. Has this been considered?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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To help jobseekers and get employers more involved, we have set up an employer engagement unit in the Department which now has more than 35 staff. Up to 600 staff in the Department's regional divisions work on employment services with both employers and jobseekers. As part of this structure, there are dedicated officers at the senior management level leading the employment process with employers at divisional level. Some time ago, I also established with the Taoiseach a labour market advisory council, chaired by Mr. Martin Murphy, managing director of Hewlett Packard Ireland, and made up of a significant number of large employers. This has resulted again in a strong focus on getting employers to include people from the live register for job interviews and, it is hoped, possible employment.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Tóibín is not in the Chamber for his question, so it will be taken with Written Answers.