Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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35. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if she has implemented all the steps outlined in the European Union Council Recommendation COM (2015) 462, final, on the integration of the long-term unemployed into the labour market; the status of implementing actions outlined in the recommendation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2493/16]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Recommendation referred to has not yet been finally adopted by the EU, but it is envisaged that this adoption by the Council will happen within the next week.

The Recommendation is aimed at spreading best practice, in terms of engagement with the long-term unemployed, across the Member States.

Essentially, the Recommendation is that Member States should take three concrete steps which open a pathway to labour market integration for the long-term unemployed:

(1) encourage registration with an employment service;

(2) assess individual needs and potential of the long-term unemployed before reaching 18 months of unemployment;

(3) offer a job integration agreement to the long-term unemployed at the latest when they have reached 18 months of unemployment.

For the purposes of this Recommendation, a 'job integration agreement' is understood to be a written agreement between a registered long term unemployed person and a single point of contact, having the objective of facilitating that person's transition into employment on the labour market.

Ireland, unlike a number of Member States, already has a system of assessing and profiling all newly unemployed people, and of agreeing a Personal Progression Plan which is in line with the “job integration agreement” envisaged in the proposed Recommendation. This system has applied to the newly unemployed since the introduction of the Intreo reforms over 2012-2014. In addition, the Department of Social Protection has commenced a process of re-engagement with those who are already long-term unemployed, a process that is now being sub-contracted to private providers of services under the JobPath initiative.

One concern underlying the Recommendation is the situation in many Member States whereby a long-term unemployed person, who exhausts entitlement to unemployment benefit paid by the national employment service, moves on to a welfare payment administered by municipal and local authorities. This can lead to discontinuity of service provision and loss of contact between the unemployed person and the national employment service. This situation does not obtain in Ireland, where Jobseekers’ Allowance is administered by the same local offices as Jobseekers’ Benefit; movement from one payment to the other does not therefore bring any discontinuity to the unemployed person’s engagement with the Department of Social Protection’s activation and case management process.

Given the above, Ireland is already complying with the thrust of the Recommendation.