Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Question 241: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reason no reference is made to the national figures of the Local Employment Service Network or to its involvement in the National Employment Action Plan in the recent report Employment Action Plan Monthly Progress Report No. 163 of April 2012; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33274/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The monthly progress report is a long-standing report produced by FÁS since the late 1990s providing summary overall national data on outcomes for persons referred under the National Employment Action Plan (EAP). It predates the involvement of the LES in the EAP referral process (which commenced in 2009), and the absence of a reference to this LES involvement is an oversight.

Approximately one third of referrals under EAP are now to LES offices, with the remainder being to employment services offices of the Department.

The report in its current form and the data collection process underlying it have become out-dated in a number of respects as the EAP has evolved, and particularly in the light of the transfer of the employment service from FÁS to the Department. It is planned to move to an updated reporting format later this year.