Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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237. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons on activation programmes under the remit of his Department, by scheme, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15161/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Data on the number of participants in job activation programmes is reported monthly by programme by the Central Statistics Office. Table 1 gives the number of persons on activation programmes under the remit of my Department in each January from 2012 to 2017.

Table 1: Numbers on DSP Activation Programmes as at January, 2012 to 2017

These programmes, together with programmes under the remit of other Departments (including Solas training programmes for unemployed people) form part of the Government’s overall policy to reduce unemployment. That overall policy has two main strands – first, through policies set out in the Action Plan for Jobs, to create an environment in which business can succeed and create jobs; and second, through Pathways to Work to ensure that as many of these new jobs and other vacancies that arise in our economy are filled by people taken from the Live Register, and in particular the long-term unemployed.

These policies have shown positive results, with unemployment falling from over 15% in 2012 to 6.6% in February 2017. Demand for places on a number of activation programmes has tended to fall in line with the overall fall in the numbers of people who are unemployed.

I am confident these policies, together with continuing economic recovery, will support further reductions in unemployment, and add to the substantial improvements that have already been seen over the last few years.