Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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105. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the amount that will be paid in 2016 to external companies that provide services under the JobPath programme; if it is intended to carry out a review of the efficacy of this programme; when the current contracts with the external companies will come to an end; if it is intended to continue with this approach; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37876/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, JobPath is an employment activation service that supports people who are long-term unemployed and those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed to secure and sustain paid employment. Two companies, Seetec and Turas Nua, have been contracted to deliver the service. These companies have established over 80 service locations around the country and employ nearly 600 staff. Over 60,000 jobseekers have commenced their engagement with the JobPath companies.

The service is being delivered through a payment by results model and all initial costs are borne by the companies i.e. the model is so structured that the contractors cannot recover their costs or make a profit unless they successfully place jobseekers into full time, paid and sustainable employment. Contractors are paid via a combination of an initial registration fee and thereafter job sustainment fees which are paid in respect of 13, 26, 39 and 52 weeks of sustained employment of at least 30 hours per week.

The overall cost of the service will be determined by the number of people who engage with the service and the number of jobseekers who successfully obtain and sustain employment. It is not intended to publish the individual payments to the 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.

Both companies are subject to regular on-site inspections to ensure that the service is delivered in accordance with contractual obligations. My department has also commissioned a customer satisfaction survey to independently assess whether customers who are referred to the service are satisfied with the level, and quality, of service delivered by the contractors. The results of the survey are expected in the coming weeks. Payments to contractors can be reduced if the results of the survey or of the inspections indicate that the quality of service is not satisfactory.

Given that the engagement period on JobPath is 12 months and also that rollout was phased it will take time to accumulate a sufficient number of completed engagements to support a robust impact evaluation. Nevertheless the department intends to carry out a preliminary econometric counterfactual impact evaluation of JobPath over the coming months, this work is expected to be completed in mid-2017 and will be followed in early 2018 by an independent third party evaluation. In addition, my department has agreed to facilitate the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) to conduct an external review of client experience with JobPath. This is expected to be undertaken early next year.

The JobPath service commenced in 2015 and the contracts are for six years comprising two consecutive phases: phase one entails four years’ of client referrals while phase two entails a ‘run off’ period during which time no additional clients will be referred, but services will be delivered to completion for those clients referred during phase one. The contracts include options to extend phase one for further periods (up to a maximum of 24 months) at the Department’s discretion. Any decision to do so will be taken nearer to the time.

It is estimated that payments in 2016 to JobPath providers will amount c. €25m.