Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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101. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if existing training schemes and courses are designed to solely reduce numbers on the live register and that opening these schemes to persons on other social welfare allowances would actually have a greater impact on returning persons to the work force; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39869/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Existing training schemes and courses are not designed to solely reduce numbers on the live register. However, the key objective of activation policy, encapsulated in the recently launched Pathways to Work 2015 strategy, is to provide a pathway back to employment for people with a work capacity who are already, or who will in the absence of support become, long term unemployed. This policy objective prioritises scarce resources to persons who are signing on the Live Register for the requisite period of time. Accordingly, the employment services and schemes provided by the Department are focused in the first instance on this cohort of unemployed people. Notwithstanding the current focus on the Live Register, the State is also mindful that other jobseekers could benefit from support in accessing the labour market. Hence, it will continue to increase the level of awareness among these groups of the employment supports that are available to them. A range of services are available to persons who are unemployed but in receipt of other social welfare payments. For example employment services, such as advice on job-search activities and the use of online job search tools, are available to people if they register with my Department’s employment services offices, regardless of their social welfare status. Further, unemployed persons in receipt of other social welfare payments such as Disability Allowance and the One Parent Family Payment (OFP) are also eligible to avail of up-skilling opportunities for example through ETB training for unemployed people, as well as schemes such as Community Employment and JobBridge, while also retaining their social welfare payment. In particular, the Government recognises the importance of increasing participation in employment for persons with a disability and is committed to removing any barriers that remain which prevent those persons with disabilities from participating in activation programmes and employment. Aside from mainstream provision, SOLAS also funds customised training for people with disabilities provided by a range of Specialist Training Providers. The Department also provides a wide range of income and work-related supports specifically for people with disabilities. Work-related supports include:

- the EmployAbility service (formerly the Supported Employment Programme) which facilitates the integration of people with disabilities into paid employment in the open labour market; and

- a number of other supports specifically for employers (the Wage Subsidy Scheme - which pays an employer a subsidy for employing a person with a disability; the Work Equipment Adaptation Grant, the Employee Retention Grant, and the Disability Awareness Scheme).

In relation to OFP, a new payment, the Jobseeker's Transition Payment, was introduced in 2013, which allows former recipients of OFP to receive the full support of the Department's activation services to help them return to work, training or education, while recognising the particular difficulties they face, such as childcare and long-term absence from the labour market.

The Department will also develop proposals as to how the Intreo activation process could, in time, be extended to jobseekers not on the Live Register. In this regard careful consideration will be given to how to balance the ‘obligation’ to engage with the Intreo service (which is a defining feature of ‘activation’) with an opportunity based approach which may be more suitable to non-Live Register cohorts. Specifically, Pathways to Work 2015 commits to:

- Developing options for extension of employment services options to cohorts other than jobseeker on the Live Register;

- Developing resourcing options to support extension of employment services activity to cohorts other than those of the Live Register by 2016.

In short, the Government is committed to supporting as many people as possible to participate more fully in employment and to become more self-sufficient by providing supports that address barriers they may encounter in finding and sustaining work employment.