Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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294. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if the referral of persons on jobseeker's allowance to An Turas Nua is automatic or if a selection process is undertaken; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8321/17]

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. The service is delivered by two companies, Seetec Ltd and Turas Nua Ltd.

For the purposes of the JobPath service all long-term unemployed jobseekers on the Live Register are categorised into groups based on their duration of unemployment (e.g. 1-2 years, 2-3 years etc.). Selection for referral to receive employment activation services from a JobPath provider is by means of stratified random sampling using these groupings; the objective being to ensure equity in selection and also that people referred to JobPath are a representative of the long term cohort on the Live Register.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.