Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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94. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who are long-term unemployed; the actions she has taken to address the challenge of long-term unemployment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41716/14]

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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This question seeks to explore issues around the plight of the long-term unemployed. Unfortunately, their numbers remain stubbornly high. We share a keen interest with the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection in the activation of those who find themselves in that particular position.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The most recent Central Statistics Office, CSO, data shows that the long-term unemployment rate has fallen from 9.3% two years ago to 6.8% in the second quarter of this year, a very significant reduction. There were 146,500 persons long-term unemployed in the second quarter, down from the comparable figure of 200,000 two years earlier. A key aim of our Pathways to Work strategy is to ensure that as many as possible of the jobs created are taken up by those on the live register. Over 55,000 people who were long-term unemployed at the start of 2012 have already found work since Pathways to Work was launched. I am confident the overall target of 75,000 by the end of 2015 will be achieved.

I announced several important measures in budget 2015 designed to help increase the pace of the progress we are making in helping people back to work. The new back-to-work family dividend will enable long-term unemployed jobseekers with children who leave welfare to return to work to retain the child-related portion of their social welfare payment on a tapered basis over two years. This includes those who move to self-employment including the construction sector. The scheme will be worth €1,550 per child in the first year of employment or self-employment and half that amount again in the second year.

I am also increasing the monthly rate of child benefit by €5 from January. This will help all families with children but also has the additional benefit for unemployed families in that it is work-neutral as it is retained in full when they return to the workforce. I also announced a doubling of the number of places on JobsPlus next year to further encourage employers to recruit from the longer term unemployed.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

As well as rolling out these initiatives, the Department will next year continue to improve its services to long-term unemployed people, including an increased focus on encouraging employers to recruit from the live register. The recent launch of the employment and youth activation charter, a commitment by large employers to work with the Department to recruit staff from the live register, will help to form the basis for this engagement.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Notwithstanding what the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection said, the numbers of long-term unemployed, including the 74,000 young people still outside education, training or employment, remain high. The Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection and her Department have been the subject of criticism by the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, the IMF, for failing to hit labour activation targets. Indeed, in one European Commission report she has been described as having “a broadly flat and open-ended unemployment benefits” system which remains static. Irrespective of how long someone has been claiming, the report stated “more needs to be done to alleviate or eliminate work disincentives and unemployment traps caused by some features of Ireland’s benefits system”. It has to be noted that her own policies have contributed to anomalies. If one looks at the abolition of the weekly €100 PRSI allowance, it has given rise to where someone on an annual income of €18,304 has a take-home pay of €17,343 but if they earn €1 more, €18,305, they have a take-home pay of €16,612, a differential of €731.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Comments have been made on our benefits system by various international bodies. Several of them - I do not know whether the Deputy agrees with them - have indicated they would like to see reductions in the rate of payment to people on long-term unemployment benefits. I believe the way to go is not to reduce the weekly rates, as Fianna Fáil did when it was last in power by reducing the rate by as much as €16.40 a week, but to concentrate on activation, as well as getting people into education, training or work experience as a preliminary step to going back to work. The figures show this has already proved successful.

We inherited from Fianna Fáil a social welfare system that international commentators described as a passive system.

In other words, once people were included in the long-term jobseeker's scheme, they were left in it. There were very few activation measures, other than through the old FÁS structures which, as we know, had many limitations. Now everyone who is or becomes unemployed is dealt with in a case management system in which they are dealt with face-to-face. They are engaged with to see what we can do to help them to get back to work, the route to which may be through education, training or an apprenticeship, but whatever it takes, we will go the extra mile to get those who are unemployed back to work. That is the critical aspect.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Let me make it clear that I am not calling for a reduction in welfare payments; rather, I am calling for anomalies within the system to be addressed and eliminated, wherever possible. The Tánaiste talks about the inadequacies of the welfare system when we were in government, but she has practically been in government for four years, which is long enough to have rectified the anomalies she may have identified. Will she address the fact that her own policies, in particular, those surrounding PRSI, have disincentivised low earners from increasing their earnings and also the long-term unemployed from entering the workforce?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I do not agree at all. A number of popular initiatives have been launched during the Government's period in office. For instance, Momentum is specifically targeted at the long-term unemployed. It means that when people take a course - most courses are up to an academic year in length - they will continue to receive their social welfare payments. At any one there are well over 20,000 people participating in the back-to-education initiative. We also have an extremely popular enterprise scheme. In addition, with the help of the Labour Market Council which I established, we have incentivised employers to give persons on the live register, particularly those who have been on it for a long time, an opportunity to attend interviews and compete for jobs. The JobsPlus scheme which we put in place last year is already catering for over 3,000 individuals. Some 60% to 70% of those who have been taken onto the scheme are unemployed for more than two years, which means that they are long-term unemployed.