Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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531. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the budget allocated to Seetec Ireland in each of the past three years, in tabular form; the total money budgeted for allocation for 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13624/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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JobPath is a payment by results model and all initial costs are borne by the companies.

In 2015 payments to the JobPath companies amounted to €1.2m and in 2016, €25.2m.

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.

The budget for 2017 is €65m. The actual expenditure will be determined by the number of people who engage with the service and the number of jobseekers who successfully obtain and sustain employment.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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532. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of service users referred by his Department to Seetec in each of the past three years, in tabular form; the outcomes for each person, specifying the employment which was gained; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13625/17]

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 and Turas Nua.

To date, some 42,025 jobseekers have started their engagement period with Seetec. The figures per year are shown in the table below -

The JobPath service was rolled out on a phased basis over the period mid-2015 to July 2016. The numbers referred initially were low but this has increased with over 82,000 customers who have commenced with the service by March 2017. It will take time to accumulate data on a sufficient number of clientswho have completed their engagement period with the service for complete and robust outcome data to be available.

However for 2017, my Department is publishing a report on the performance of the service on a quarterly basis. The first report was published on the 17^thJanuary. This report provided outcome figures such as job starts and 13 week job sustainment fees in respect of the first 1,266 jobseekers referred to the service during the period July – September 2015. It is not intended to publish the outcomes for each contractor separately at this time, 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.

The initial data on the impact of the service is encouraging. Employment outcome data shows that compared to people who did not take part in the service, people who availed of the service were 23% more likely to have started a job (as of October 2016). The difference appears to be more marked for very long-term unemployed people, with those out of work for more than three years some 44% more likely to have found a job if they engaged with the service.

The first report is available on the department’s website at .

The published data contains a range of information which may assist the Deputy in gaining an overview of the performance of the service to date.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.