Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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321. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who have been selected for participation in the JobPath scheme in each geographical area where it is in operation; the criteria used for the selection of this group; the length of time current and past participants have spent unemployed by bands of three months; the time participants spent working with JobPath providers broken down by week before employment was secured; the number of those participants who have maintained this employment broken down by bands of one month; if he will supply details of his payments to JobPath providers for assisting in securing and sustaining employment for participants who have found work on the basis of the four 13-week payments per calendar year; the number of persons he sanctioned for failing to engage with these companies for each geographical area in tabular form, in each instance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14686/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Ireland’s Public Employment Service (PES) is managed by the Department of Social Protection (DSP) and delivered directly by its own Intreo service as well as by contracted private companies that provide JobPath services, Local Employment Service (LES) and Job Clubs. JobPath is a new approach to employment activation that supports people who are long-term unemployed (LTU) and those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed to secure and sustain paid employment.The JobPath service is delivered by two companies - Turas Nua Limited and Seetec Limited.

JobPath is being delivered nationally in two contract areas that are based on the Department’s current divisional structure. The geographic areas are as follows:

Seetec – West; Midlands North; North East; North West, Dublin Central; Dublin North; Dublin South.

Turas Nua – Cork Central; South East; Mid-Leinster, Mid-West; South West; Midlands South.

34,307 jobseekers have been referred to JobPath as follows (to 6 June 2016):

LTU = Long Term Unemployed

For the purpose of JobPath selection, jobseekers are divided into the following groups:

1. Clients becoming long-term unemployed i.e. passing 12 months

2. Clients who have been unemployed for 1-2 years

3. Clients who have been unemployed for 2-3 years

4. Clients who have been unemployed for more than 3 years

5. Newly unemployed clients who are assessed by the Department to be at a high risk of becoming long term unemployed

6. Clients who, although in part-time employment, have been in receipt of a jobseeker’s payment for more than 12 months.

The Department began referring long term unemployed jobseekers from referral groups 2 - 4 and recently started referring from group 1. Referrals from the remaining groups have not yet commenced. Within the above groups selection for JobPath is on a random basis. It is not possible to provide the duration of unemployment, other than by reference to the referral groups, within the time available to answer the question.

Clients receive support for 52 weeks but this period may continue for up to 130 weeks e.g. where a person engages in further education/training (for up to 26 weeks) and receives “in work” support (for up to 52 weeks). The roll-out of JobPath commenced in July 2015 on a “soft-launch” basis. To date no one has completed their engagement with the JobPath service. Detailed analyses of JobPath data will be published later this year. As indicated in “Pathways to Work 2016 – 2020” the Department intends to publish performance statistics of contracted providers including JobPath, LES and Job Clubs from Q3 2016.

JobPath is a payment by results model and all initial costs are borne by the companies. JobPath is so structured that the companies will not be able to fully recover their costs until they place sufficient numbers of jobseekers into sustainable jobs. It is not intended to publish the individual payments to the JobPath companies as these are commercially sensitive and to do so would place the State at a disadvantage both in terms of the contracts now in place and any future procurement that may be undertaken.

Departmental records indicate that, as at mid-May, some 350 clients referred to the JobPath service have seen sanctioned. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of this information on a geographic basis within the time available to answer the question.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.