Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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369. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of jobseekers who have been called to interviews as part of her Department's strategy of having more regular and on-going engagement with jobseekers as set out in the pathways to work document. [22931/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department has significantly increased the volume and efficiency of activation referrals in recent years by bringing groups of customers to information sessions prior to one-to-one engagement.

Through this Group Engagement process, referrals in the first four months of 2013 were 38,100, as compared with 18,500 in 2012. One-to-one referrals (including direct referrals and post-Group Engagement) in the first four months of 2013 were 37,800. This represented a small increase on the 2012 figure of 36,700. However, because of the increased attendance rates at one-to-one interviews achieved as a result of the group engagement initiative, the actual number of interviews achieved through the referral process rose from 29,000 in the first four months in 2012 to 32,000 in first four months in 2013.