Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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21. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will report on the progress of JobsPlus; the number of businesses that have engaged with the initiative; the number of persons who have availed of employment through the scheme; if she will provide a list of locations, on a county basis, which sets out the regional uptake of the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10435/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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JobsPlus is a new employer incentive which encourages and rewards employers who offer employment opportunities to the long-term unemployed. This incentive replaced the employer Job PRSI Exemption Scheme and the Revenue Job Assist from 1^st July 2013. Regular cash payments are made to qualifying employers to offset wage costs when they engage jobseekers from the Live Register.

The incentive provides two levels of payment:

- a payment of €7,500 over two years to an employer for persons recruited who have been unemployed for between 12 and 24 months; and

- a payment of €10,000 over two years to an employer who recruits a person who has been two years or more on the Live Register.

As of 21^st February 2014, a total of 2,820 employers have registered to check their eligibility. Of these, 2,687 have been approved, while 57 employers have been rejected. The main reason for rejection is that they do not hold a valid tax clearance cert.

Up to the same date, 6,128 jobseekers have applied to check their eligibility. Of these 4,728 are eligible while 1,182 do not satisfy the conditions for the incentive.

Payments for the JobsPlus scheme will issue to 1,231 employers in respect of 1,589 employees on Friday, 28^th February 2014. A breakdown of these payments by county is shown in the table below.

TABLE