Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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520. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if JobPath will form part of the review to be carried out by his Department of activation programmes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13479/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In 2015 My Department initiated a rolling multi-annual evaluations programme, using econometric and qualitative methods, of the Pathways to Work programme and process reforms. This includes large-scale annual customer satisfaction surveys. It draws upon an episodic administrative database, the Jobseekers’ Longitudinal Database (JLD), capturing jobseekers spells of unemployment and exits to employment, training and education, from 2004.

The two major evaluations currently under way using the JLD are the evaluation of the Intreo ‘one-stop-shop’ service for jobseekers, and of the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA). Evaluation reports have already been published on the Back to Education Allowance scheme and on JobBridge. It is planned to carry out a full econometric review of JobPath later this year when participant numbers will have reached a level to support such an evaluation.

The Department has recently published the JobPath Performance Data Report for the period July – September 2015, the results of which have been very positive. The report is available on the Departments website at

The Department intends to publish similar performance reports for each successive quarter as jobseekers complete their 12 month engagement period.

In addition to the above, the Department carries out regular on-site inspections to ensure that JobPath is delivered in accordance with contractual obligations. To date, 29 on-site inspections have been carried out at provider locations around the country.

The Department also commissions customer satisfaction research, which provides a qualitative evaluation of the standard of service delivery provided by the Jobpath providers.

To date one such survey has been conducted and the results are included in the published material referred to above.