John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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635. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of referrals made to the local employment services to date in 2018, by office; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42311/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Local Employment Services (LES) forms part of the State’s public employment service. The public employment service is managed by my Department and delivered through the Intreo service as well as by contractors, such as JobPath, the Local Employment Service and Job Club providers.

The LES engages primarily with long-term unemployed jobseekers, but may also engage with short-term unemployed jobseekers where a local need arises. Jobseekers are referred directly to the LES by Intreo offices. LES maximum caseloads per mediators (120:1) are agreed for each contract and jobseekers are referred to LES offices on a replacement basis only.

The following table reflects the numbers of customers who attended/engaged with the LES, by provider, to end of September 2018. The engagement period can last for up to 12 months. The Department records when a customer attends/engages with the LES service, some of the numbers below may include those persons who were referred towards the end of 2017, but who attended/engaged with the service this year. The number of referrals to the LES this year to the end of September was 12,525.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.