Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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188. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the criteria she will use to select private contractors to implement the JobPath plans; the amount of money proposed to be spent; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10653/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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JobPath is the Government’s new labour market activation service aimed specifically at the long-term unemployed and those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed.

JobPath will augment and complement the Department’s own employment service capacity as well as that of Local Employment Service (LES) and Job Clubs providers, who operate under contract to the Department, thereby increasing capacity to provide supports to assist jobseekers in obtaining employment.

On 12 December 2013, the Department published a Request For Tenders (RFT) inviting tenders for the provision of JobPath services. The closing date for receipt of JobPath tenders was the 28th of February 2014.

The full RFT documentation has been published on

All Tenders received in response to this procurement competition will be evaluated on the basis of the detailed criteria set out in the RFT documentation.

The cost of the JobPath service will be dependent upon the pricing structure agreed following the tendering process. In addition it should be noted that as JobPath is a payment by results model the actual cost of JobPath is dependent upon the number of jobseekers that JobPath providers can successfully place into sustained employment.