Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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434. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the total number of labour activation places provided by her Department on a monthly basis from October 2012 to October 2013 inclusive broken down by places taken up and places left vacant. [45757/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department of Social Protection provides labour activation places on a number of programmes. Figures for participation on the main such programmes for the end of each month from September 2013 to September 2012 are contained in the following Table 1. The figures for October 2013 are not yet available.

The concept of vacant places on a monthly basis is not meaningful in the context of most of these schemes. The budget provision for these schemes is based on an estimate on the number of places for the year as a whole. For some schemes the number of places available is essentially demand-led (e.g. Back to Education Allowance, Back to Work Enterprise Allowance, JobBridge), and therefore the notion of ‘vacant places’ has limited relevance.

The revised annual Budget 2013 expenditure estimates for the schemes, together with the relevant underlying participation projections, are set out in the following Table 2.

The Deputy will be aware that there are also a number of activation schemes involving further education/training that are not listed here as they come under the remit of the Department of Education & Science.

Table 1: Number of Participants of Working Age on Employment Support programmes - Sep 2012 to Sep 2013

Table 2: Revised Annual Budget 2013 Estimates for Employment Supports