Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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171. To ask the Minister for Social Protection when the roll out of JobPath will commence; and the cost, to date, of the roll-out, including consultation, tendering and preparation. [24773/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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JobPath is the Government’s new labour market activation service aimed specifically at long-term unemployed jobseekers and those new jobseekers most distant from the labour market, with the primary objective of assisting such persons to secure sustained full-time paid employment.

JobPath will be delivered by two companies – Seetec Limited and Turas Nua Limited. JobPath will augment and complement the Department’s existing employment service capacity as well as that of the Local Employment Service (LES) and Job Clubs, which already operate under contract to the Department, thereby increasing capacity to provide supports to assist jobseekers in obtaining employment.

Subject to the satisfactory completion of the necessary IT development work to support JobPath, it is expected that the roll-out will commence, on a phased basis, during the summer months with the objective of having JobPath fully operational nationwide by October/November.

The JobPath companies are responsible for their own initial costs. The Department retained the services of the London based Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion who provided expert advice and assistance with the design and delivery of the JobPath model as well as with the evaluation of tenders. This was at a total cost of Eur191,684 including VAT. It is not possible to determine other costs associated with JobPath that have arisen within the department and within other bodies, such as the Chief State Solicitor’s Office and the National Development Finance Agency, as it not possible to disaggregate these costs for overall administrative costs.