Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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122. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the expenditure on the momentum programme; the estimated cost of increasing the number of places on the programme by 20%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50910/17]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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The Momentum programme was created in 2012 during the economic downturn to address the needs of long term unemployed and young unemployed individuals. It funded the provision of free education and training projects to support over 12,500 jobseekers (who had been unemployed for twelve months or more) to gain skills and access employment opportunities in growing sectors of the economy.

It was delivered through two programme iterations. The first (Momentum I) ran over the period 2012-2014, and the second (Momentum II) commenced in 2014 and concluded earlier this year. Momentum 1 cost in the order of €17m and Momentum II cost almost €19m.  The cost of another round of Momentum with 20% greater numbers than Momentum II would be €22.8 million.  It is likely that this total cost would be spread over more than a single year.

Given the overall improvement in the economic position, the welcome decline in the numbers who are unemployed and the consequent reduction in demand for training, there are no plans for a further round of the Momentum programme and participants are not currently being recruited.

Independent evaluations of both programmes have been carried out and published and are available on the SOLAS website at