Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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370. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the expenditure on JobsPlus from 2013 to 2016 and to date in 2017, in tabular form; the number of long-term unemployed who have gained employment due to this scheme; the details of persons that have been retained in employment beyond a two-year period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16582/17]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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371. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the steps his Department has taken to highlight JobsPlus to employers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16583/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 370 and 371 together.

As the Deputy is aware, the JobsPlus incentive is designed to encourage employers and businesses to focus their recruitment efforts on those who have been out of work for long periods, or on young people seeking employment. It provides employers with two levels of payment - €7,500 or €10,000 over two years, paid in monthly instalments, provided the employment is maintained. The rate of payment depends on the length of time the person employed has been on the Live Register.

Up to the end of February 2017, just over 12,900 people have gained employment through the scheme. Expenditure on the programme is shown in table 1 below.

Table 1: Expenditure on JobsPlus 2013-2017

My Department has established relationships with employers, representative bodies and other stakeholders at a national level and this is co-ordinated by employment engagement managers throughout the Department’s divisions who co-ordinate the service at local level. JobsPlus is publicised as a matter of course in employer networking events and briefings on the services offered by the Department, at jobs fairs and at events during National Jobs Week, which takes place annually. My Department also engages with enterprise agencies to encourage their client companies to recruit directly from the Live Register and to avail of the services my Department provides, including JobsPlus.

My Department is currently undertaking a Focused Policy Assessment on JobsPlus and the outcomes for participants will be examined in this and in a forthcoming counterfactual impact evaluation which is planned for later this year. Preliminary analysis of a sample of Jobsplus employees has shown that over 87% of participants remain off the Live Register between 30 and 36 months after commencing their JobsPlus employment. I consider this a very favourable result and I believe it demonstrates the positive effect that JobsPlus has in getting people who are long-term unemployed into work.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.