Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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309. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of jobless households; the way in which this compares to the European average; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25888/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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According to the Eurostat Labour Force Survey, in 2016 there were 170.76 million households in the EU (excluding households composed solely of students or solely of inactive people aged 65 and over). Of these, some 29.49 million households (17.3% of the total) were jobless - that is, no adult in the household was working.

For Ireland, the total number of relevant households was 1,440,600, and of these some 253,000 (17.6% of the total) were jobless.

Although the figure for Ireland has fallen from a high of 23% in 2012 as a result of the economic recovery, government remains concerned about aspects of household joblessness that go beyond the standard measures of unemployment and receipt of jobseekers’ payments. Relevant groups, not normally considered to be unemployed, include economically inactive lone parents, people with disabilities, and the adult dependants of unemployed people, all of whom might benefit from closer attachment to employment and the labour market. A range of policy reforms has been taken affecting these groups, and further reforms are being considered in consultation with representative bodies for those involved. These policy developments will be set out in an Action Plan for Jobless Households, to be published in the next few weeks.