Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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576. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the amount of job sustainment fees paid to the private companies operating the JobPath programme over the past 12 months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30029/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department does not publish the individual fees paid to these providers because of commercial sensitivity. This commercial sensitivity is specifically in relation to the release of the information having the potential to influence the pricing of future contracts providing a similar service and thereby having the potential to confer commercial advantage on one bidder over another.

JobPath is a payment by results model and the initial set up costs and the ongoing running costs are borne by the companies.

Job sustainment fees are payable for each 13-week period of sustained employment, up to a maximum of 52 weeks. The jobs must be full time, that is, more than 30 hours a week, with some exceptions. This means JobPath companies are incentivised financially to assist people to find full-time jobs that they are likely to hold down and are therefore suited to. My Department verifies each individual job sustainment fee claim before payment, confirming that the customer is in employment and no longer on the Live Register.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.