Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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32. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the additional number of persons expected to access community employment and Tús schemes following the rule change for JobPath that comes into effect on 1 June 2018; if additional resources will be made available in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19221/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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JobPath is one of a range of activation supports, including employment schemes such as Community Employment (CE) and Tús, catering for unemployed jobseekers. Long term unemployed jobseekers who are not engaged with any other activation scheme or service are referred by my Department to the JobPath service to receive intensive individual support, including relevant training and educational programmes which will assist them in finding full-time sustainable employment. The Deputy will appreciate that the welcome reduction in the unemployment rate is a factor in recruitment to all programmes. Long-term unemployment is expected to fall further this year in line with the continuing forecasted fall in overall unemployment. In the context of the economic recovery, my Department undertook a review of the work programmes in 2016. While the primary focus was on CE, the review also looked at other employment programmes such as Tús.

Arising from the review, the Government agreed to implement changes to the qualifying conditions for CE in order to broaden access to a wider range of people. These new rules were implemented from July 2017. The qualifying age was reduced to 21 years. In addition while, in general, all placements will now be for one year only, if a CE participant is undertaking training to achieve a major award, their time can be extended by up to 2 year to allow them to complete the training which will enhance their overall employment prospects. This allows for 3 years continuous participation on CE. Those over 55 years of age can also remain on CE for three years. In addition, the reference year for CE participation was moved from 2000 to 2007 which ensures that more people can re-qualify for the programme. Overall, these changes improve the way the schemes operate and will allow more people who are long-term unemployed to access them. I continue to keep this whole area under review so that these schemes provide real and valuable support to both individuals and communities.

As the Deputy is aware, I recently announced that from June 2018, customers currently engaged with the JobPath service and those who may be referred in future will have the option of applying for CE and Tús placement while continuing to engage with JobPath.

This has a number of benefits both for the vital services provided at a local level by participants on CE and Tús programmes and directly for my Department’s customers. It maximises the assistance and services for people who are long-term unemployed through a combination of a quality work placement and personalised job seeking support provided through the JobPath service. I want to make sure that their valuable contribution to their local communities will continue, and that they continue to benefit from the personalised, case-managed activation support of the JobPath service.

The Government is very mindful of the large number of work programme places involved in service delivery and other valuable services around the country. While it is difficult to predict the number of persons who will avail of this option to participate on CE and Tús, while at the same time maintaining their engagement with JobPath, I anticipate that it will assist in the filling of vacancies on both programmes. There is no additional cost implication with the introduction of this measure.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.