Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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598. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the measures she is taking to increase employment in the Travelling community; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28175/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Action Plan for Jobs is one of the Government's key instruments to support job creation. Since the launch of the first Plan in 2012, 176,000 more people are in employment, driven by growth in job openings in both the manufacturing and services sectors. Our target under the 2016 Action Plan for Jobs is to add 50,000 new jobs this year. We have made a good start. Over 36,000 new jobs were created in the six months of 2016. According to the CSO the unemployment rate fell to 7.9% in September this year, down from 9.1% in September 2015. The seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed was 172,900 in September 2016, down from 180,200 when compared to the August 2016 figure and youth unemployment fell to 15.9% in September 2016 from 20.9% in Sept 2015. The Government's Enterprise 2025 is a whole of enterprise strategy, aimed at delivering opportunities across all regions and across all sectors. It sets the ambition to achieve full employment that is sustainable and resilient over the longer term. A key part of delivering on this ambition is about establishing a vibrant and stimulating ecosystem for entrepreneurship in all sectors and in supporting small businesses to sustain and grow employment.

The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) of my Department provide advice guidance and financial assistance and other supports to all people regardless of ethnicity that wish to start their own enterprises. A number of LEOs have undertaken targeted initiatives to engage with prospective entrepreneurs amongst the Traveller and Roma communities as well as other ethnic and minority groups. The best practice in respect of any such specialised initiatives is ensured on a national basis through the LEO Centre of Excellence in Enterprise Ireland.

The main responsibilities for measures to increase employment in the Traveller and Roma community rests with the Minister for Social Protection through the INTREO service as well as with the Minister for Justice and Equality who has overall responsibility for the compilation and implementation of the National Traveller and Roma inclusion Strategy (NTRIS) to which my Department also contributes.

In this regard, Community Employment (CE) has special provision for members of the Travelling Community. Travellers aged 18 or over who are unemployed and in receipt of jobseekers benefit, jobseekers allowance for 1 week or more, or Travellers who are in receipt of one parent family payment for 12 months or longer, are eligible to participate on CE. Declaration of membership of the Travelling Community is up to the individual, and many Travellers are eligible under the other standard CE categories and so do not show under the Traveller eligibility category. The statistics for those Travellers who declared membership of the Travelling Community for August 2016 shows 225 participants.

There are a number of specialist Traveller CE schemes, including Clondalkin Travellers Enterprise, West Cork Traveller and Environmental Project, Northside Travellers Support, Southside Traveller Action Group, Travellers Support Group Blanchardstown, Navan Travellers Workshops, Galway Traveller Movement, and Pavee Point.