Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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610. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the percentage of participants in each year that have entered full-time employment after participating in JobPath since the scheme commenced, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14167/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, JobPath is a service that supports people who are long-term unemployed to obtain and sustain paid employment. The service was launched in 2015 on a ‘rolling basis’ with referral numbers gradually increasing over time.

There are two phases to the service. During the first phase, of 12 months duration, a personal advisor (PA) provides practical assistance in searching, preparing for, securing and sustaining employment. The second phase starts if the jobseeker is successful in finding work. During this phase the PA continues to work with the jobseeker for a further period of at least three months, and up to 12 months. In addition to the two phases jobseekers may also undertake training while with the service and this may extend the period the jobseeker is supported through the service for up to a further 6 months.

The total number of clients who commenced an employment each year since service was launched is shown in the following table –

*2018 figures are up to end of February.

To facilitate the Deputy in gaining an overview of the service I would call her attention to the published results for the service covering those referred between July 2015 and June 2016. These published reports provide information on customers who not only commenced employment but sustained employment. The Department was careful in designing the service to ensure that payments to contractors are conditional on Jobseekers not just finding a job but finding and sustaining their employment. The companies are, for example, only paid a job outcome fee for each 13 week period of sustained employment of at least 30 hours per week.

It should also be noted that jobseekers are supported by the service for up to 30 months and as such the duration of the client journey necessitates the requirement of a cohort based approach to reporting in order to produce accurate outcome data. For this reason, the number of clients entering employment is expected to increase in time.

The Department is undertaking an econometric review of this strand of its activation services. Completion of the review is provisionally scheduled for the end of the third quarter 2018, following which more detailed and robust statistics will be available.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.