Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide detail of the jobs plus initiative and if she will specify the length of the contracts of the jobs involved. [11378/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Action Plan for Jobs 2013, published by my colleague Richard Bruton T.D. Minister for Enterprise Jobs and Innovation on 22 February 2013, outlines 333 actions to be implemented before 31st December 2013 by 16 Departments and 46 agencies. These actions will continue to improve supports for job-creating businesses and remove the barriers to employment-creation across the economy. Furthermore, it also outlines 7 Disruptive Reforms; these high impact measures with ambitious deadlines are to be implemented in partnership with senior industry figures. These were selected because of their potential to have an immediate effect on job-creation.

One such reform is the JobsPlus scheme which will replace the existing PRSI exemption and the Revenue Job assist schemes. The objective of the new JobsPlus scheme is to provide a simple, easily understood and attractive scheme that will encourage employers to recruit from the cohort of the long term unemployed. The incentive will be payable over a two year period and set at two levels in order to bias the incentive in favour of the more long term unemployed:

- In respect of recruits unemployed for more than 12 months but less than 24 months: €7,500,

- In respect of recruits unemployed for more than 24 months: €10,000.

The operational details of the scheme are at the design stage with a proposed launch date of quarter three 2013. The existing schemes will remain in existence in the interim.