Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

363. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who have chosen to forego their social welfare payment rather that than take up a position on the Gateway scheme after being called for interview; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30753/14]

Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

374. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of Gateway places that have been allocated on a county basis; and the number of these places that have been filled by 1 July in tabular form. [31025/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 363 and 374 together.

As the Deputies will be aware, Gateway is a work placement initiative for county and city councils. The initiative aims to improve the employability and maintain the work readiness of those who have been unemployed for 24 months or more. Similar to Tús, participants are selected by a random process conducted by the Department of Social Protection from those persons in receipt of a jobseekers allowance payment for 24 months or more. The selected jobseekers are informed when they have been selected and, if they agree to participate, have their contact details passed to the relevant county and city council. To further support the recruitment process, the Department has put arrangements in place for jobseekers meeting the scheme criteria to apply to the Department or councils for participation on Gateway and for Departmental case officers to nominate suitable candidates for recruitment.

Responsibility for delivery of this initiative rests with individual county and city councils. Sufficient resources are available to provide for 3,000 placements in 2014.

Data collected in respect of 6,430 jobseekers who have been selected to date for Gateway indicates that six jobseekers were subject to sanctions resulting in the temporary disallowance (up to a maximum of 9 weeks) of their jobseekers payments for failure to engage with the initiative. A further 87 jobseekers claims have been closed following engagement between officials and jobseekers. In some of these cases, a different DSP payment was deemed more appropriate to the individual’s circumstances. The Deputy should note that processes are ongoing in a number of other cases and these are not represented in the data to date.

The table below sets out the numbers of places allocated to each local authority together with the number of jobseekers engaged on Gateway as of Friday 4^thJuly.