Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 357: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will provide details of the work of the National Employment Action Plan interdepartmental committee; the number of times it met in 2007 and to date in 2008; the outcome of these meetings; and the position in relation to meeting commitments made in Towards 2016 in relation to expanding the plan. [28480/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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A high level group, comprising officials from the Department, officials from Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and FÁS, was established in March 2007 to advance the implementation of the commitments on activation and participation as set out in Towards 2016. The group held meetings on 3 occasions in 2007 and once in 2008. The next meeting of the group is scheduled for later in July.

A number of enhancements have been applied to the National Employment Action Plan (NEAP). These include:

a reduction in the period after which intervention takes place from 6 to 3 months on the Live Register for all age groups, and

extension of the referral process to new claims from persons aged 55-64 who reach 3 months on the Live Register.

The NDP 2007-13 provides for a Social and Economic Participation programme with the objective of promoting participation through activation measures aimed at people of working age. This initiative involves an active case management service for social welfare customers of working age, including collaboration to ensure that customers, agencies and service providers in this area engage actively with each other. A social partners group has been established to progress implementation and has met on two occasions. The programme will build on the existing activation service provided by some 40 facilitators based across the Department's 8 regional administrative areas.

The interdepartmental group will continue to work in progressing objectives of Towards 2016 relating to activation measures and the referral process under the NEAP.