Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 67: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide the numbers of unemployed and unemployment rates, three months, six months, 12 months for each year of the past five years and to date in 2011 for the north inner city and Cabra and Glasnevin areas of Dublin Central; the specific local initiatives driven by current Government policy that will be taken to address the situation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25288/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Unemployed persons residing in the areas referred to by the Deputy are dealt with by 3 Social Welfare Local Offices in the Dublin area. Accordingly, I have provided a breakdown of each of the offices by duration bands and covering the last 5 years to date in 2011.

With regard to initiatives designed to tackle unemployment I outline below the main programmes which are operating within my Department at the present time. The National Employment Action Plan is the main activation measure for jobseekers and provides for a systematic engagement of the employment services with unemployed people. Under the Plan, all persons between the ages of 18 and 65 years, who are approaching 3 months on the Live Register, are identified by the Department of Social Protection and referred to FÁS for interview with the aim of assisting them to enter/re-enter the labour market.

I also published the plan for the development and implementation of a new National Employment and Entitlements Service (NEES), as provided for in the Programme for Government. The objective is to integrate the benefit payment services currently provided directly by the Department of Social Protection with the employment support services provided by FÁS into a single service. This will provide a 'one stop shop' for people wishing to establish their benefit entitlements, seek employment and / or seek advice about their training options. The focus will be very much on the individual, his / her rights to a payment, his / her access to an opportunity to engage in employment, training or upskilling, as appropriate and his / her responsibility to engage with such opportunities as they are provided.

In addition, a number of initiatives have been introduced that seek to assist unemployed people into employment and education. Each is in operation locally. These include:

· JobBridge, the National Internship scheme, which is providing up to 5,000 work experience placements in the private, public and voluntary sectors. The scheme provides work experience placements for a 26 or 39 week period. A weekly allowance of €50 per week on top of the existing social welfare entitlement is paid for the period of the internship.

· Springboard, which offers people the opportunity to study on a part-time basis for higher education qualifications in areas where more employment opportunities are expected to arise as the economy recovers. Programmes vary in duration from several months to three years and are suitable for people who have no prior experience of third level education as well as unemployed graduates who may need to acquire new qualifications to re-enter the workforce.

· Tús, which is a community work placement scheme that provides one-year work opportunities for unemployed people. The work opportunities are provided by community and voluntary organisations in both urban and rural areas. Participants work 19.5 hours per week for 12 months.

In the time available it is not been possible to get information on specific local initiatives in these three local offices but I will write to the Deputy in this regard as soon as possible.