Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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127. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans for Turas Nua and Seetec in view of the improvement in the number of persons at work; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46813/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Bringing the long-term unemployed back into the workforce is a key priority for me, and I welcome the on-going reduction in the Live Register.

As the Deputy will be aware, JobPath is a service which supports people who are long-term unemployed to secure and sustain full time paid employment. Two companies, Seetec and Turas Nua, have been contracted by my Department to deliver the service. The contracts are for six years, comprising two consecutive phases: phase one entails four years’ of client referrals, while phase two entails a ‘run off’ period during which time no additional clients will be referred. Therefore client referrals will cease on 31st December 2019 and the contracts will terminate in 2021. It is important to note that services will be delivered to completion for those clients referred during phase one.

The contracts include options to extend phase one for further periods (up to a maximum of 24 months) at my Department’s discretion. While proposals to extend the contracts are not currently under consideration, my Department will keep the situation under review.

At present, a full econometric evaluation of the service is being conducted in conjunction with the OECD. The results of this econometric evaluation will inform my Department's consideration of any future developments in this area.