Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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608. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the way in which participants for JobPath are selected; if there has been a change in this regard; if it is a random selection or a screening process; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14165/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection provides a range of activation supports catering for long-term unemployed jobseekers and those most distant from the labour market to secure and sustain full-time paid employment. These supports include the JobPath service.

For the purposes of the JobPath service all long-term unemployed jobseekers on the Live Register, aged between 18 and 61 years old inclusive, are categorised into groups based on their duration of unemployment (e.g. 1- 2 years, 2 – 3 years etc.). Selection for referral to receive employment activation services from a JobPath provider is by means of system based stratified random sampling using these groupings; the objective being to ensure equity in selection and also that people referred to JobPath are a representative of the long term cohort on the Live Register.

The duration of a person's Jobseekers claim is recorded in terms of days of unemployment. Jobseeker Allowance claims is made up of continuous periods of unemployment. Any two such periods not separated by more than 52 weeks are considered to be the same continuous period of unemployment - this is known as linking the claims. Long-term jobseekers that may have left the live register to go into employment for less than a year are still considered to be long-term if they reopen their claim within that 52 week period. They retain certain entitlements (for example no waiting days and other supplemental benefits) and are also available for selection for activation services including JobPath.

Protocols for referral currently preclude the selection of anyone who has already completed 52 weeks on the JobPath programme within the previous 4 months although in practice it is generally 6 months.. A person who has completed a year with the JobPath service; continues to meet the criteria for long term unemployment and is not engaged in other activation supports and services becomes eligible for selection for a second period of activation with the JobPath service after 4 to 6 months.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.