Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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22. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the measures that will be taken under the Action Plans for Jobs to assist those who are out of work for three years or more; if specific black spots have been identified with high levels of long-term unemployment; the way the State agencies will assist in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6270/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Government’s primary strategy to reduce long-term unemployment is through policies to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth. This strategy has been succeeding, with an increase of over 80,000 in employment over the last 2 years.

The Action Plan for Jobs is focused on stimulating employment growth; Pathways to Work on making sure that as many as possible of these new jobs, and other vacancies that arise in the economy, are filled by people who are unemployed jobseekers. Pathways to Work thus provides the overall framework for the Department of Social Protection’s response to the long-term unemployed. Although long-term unemployment has fallen in line with the overall decline in unemployment, those who are very long-term unemployed continue to be of concern. The Pathways to Work strategy for 2015, in addition to ongoing reforms, therefore prioritises additional measures to enhance engagement with the long-term unemployed. This includes a structured process of engagement with the existing long-term unemployed that will see at least 8,300 long-term unemployed people being referred to the activation process (Group Engagement followed by regular one-to-one case officer contact) each month in early 2015.

A new payment by results contract model with third party providers of employment services for the long-term unemployed, JobPath, will be rolled out by June 2015. It will provide additional capacity in order to engage more systematically with long-term unemployed jobseekers. Long-term unemployed youth 18-24 can avail of a new initiative, First Steps, a developmental internship programme which is a variant of the JobBridge Scheme. A minimum of 16,000 places for long-term unemployed jobseekers will also be provided through key public employment programmes.

57,000 Further Education and Training (FET) places will continue to be reserved for long-term unemployed jobseekers in 2015. My colleagues in the Department of Education and Skills, together with SOLAS and ETBs, are responsible for this area.

JobsPlus provides a direct monthly financial incentive to employers who recruit employees from those who are long term on the live register. Since January 2015, eligibility for the lower level of subsidy has been broadened to include young jobseekers (aged 18-24) unemployed for four months or more and persons in a jobseekers allowance transitional arrangement.

Finally, there are a number of supports available for those unemployed who wish to start their own business. This includes the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA) and Short-term Enterprise Allowance (STEA). Under the auspices of DJEI, micro-finance supports for young unemployed people wishing to start their own business are also available.

A Protocol between DSP, DJEI and the Enterprise Agencies was put in place to ensure that there are good working arrangements at local level to share information, cooperate on awareness and promotion activities, match enterprise needs for existing and new projects, engage on conversion and training needs, ensure companies can avail of Intreo placement services and agree monitoring and reporting arrangements for the overall levels of recruitment from the Live Register by Agency-assisted companies. Under Pathways to Work 2015, the operation of the protocol will be reviewed, and following that a report on its operation will be produced in the first half of the year.

In regard to the question of “blackspots”, the focus of policy on the individuals who are long-term unemployed inevitably also concentrates resources on the areas in which long-term unemployment is most heavily concentrated. There is, moreover, relatively limited variation in unemployment across areas and regions in Ireland when compared with other EU countries. For example, in late 2014 the proportion of those on the Live Register for more than three years was 27% for the State. This proportion ranged from 25% in the Mid-East and South-West regions to 29% in the South-East, Mid-West and Midlands regions.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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23. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views that the indicators used by her Department to show labour market participation are of limited relevance for Ireland's youth and their opportunities to move on to paid employment, education or training; that the resources of her Department would be better used in actively ensuring those not in education, training or employment would have relevant transferable employability skills; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9360/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The official measures of employment, unemployment and labour force participation are sourced from the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS). These measures are collected in line with practice throughout the EU, and are internationally comparable and robust. Reflecting the improvement in the labour market, youth unemployment continues to fall. For example, the seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate in Ireland as estimated by Eurostat was 21.6% in December 2014 as compared to 30.8% in December 2011.

The Government’s primary strategy to tackle youth unemployment is through policies to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth and the availability of productive employment for young people. This strategy has been succeeding, with an increase of over 80,000 in employment over the last two years.

However, the Government recognises that as the recovery takes hold, there is a need for additional measures to ensure that as many as possible of the jobs created are taken up by jobseekers and by young jobseekers in particular. This is the rationale behind the Government’s Pathways to Workstrategy and the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan.

As noted in the Implementation Plan, the vast majority of young people who are not in employment, education or training are identified as unemployed and registered with the Department of Social Protection.

The Youth Guarantee sets a medium-term objective of ensuring that such young people receive an offer of employment within four months of becoming unemployed. This will be delivered by changing the activation process to ensure that young people benefit from earlier and more frequent engagement with case officers, by earmarking places on existing employment and training programmes for young people and by introducing some new programmes such as FirstSteps and JobPlus Youth. FirstSteps aims to offer young people you are particularly distant from the labour market a work experience opportunity with sponsor employers. In line with the Youth Guarantee commitment, JobsPlus Youth offers employers who recruit a young person under 25 years of age who was unemployed for four months or more a subsidy of up to €416 per month. The duration unemployed threshold for other age cohorts is 12 months.

The department is also responsible for referring clients to further education and training (FET) and related programmes. My colleagues in the Department of Education and Skills have responsibility for these programmes.

The primary intent of all activation policies, including for the young unemployed, is on assistance in finding suitable employment. Where this is not possible in the short term, ensuring that participants have transferrable employability skills is a key focus of all programmes to which young people are referred.