Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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150. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the review of the gateway scheme has been completed and published; and if the link to the publication will be provided. [2153/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Gateway Initiative was introduced in 2013 at a time of high unemployment in Ireland, with a target of 3,000 working opportunities.

The aim of the Gateway scheme was to improve the employability and work readiness of participants by providing them with the opportunities to put their work skills into practice and to learn new skills to enable their progression to work, further education or other development opportunities.  Gateway provided work placements in Local Authorities for a period of 22 months for those who were unemployed for more than two years.

Given the capacity of other employment schemes such as Community Employment (CE), Tús and the Rural Social Scheme (RSS), as well as the continuing reduction in the numbers who were unemployed, recruitment of participants to Gateway closed in December 2018.  During its lifetime the initiative supported 2,981 individuals.

An evaluation of the Gateway programme is currently in progress and I expect to receive the final report in the coming period.

The priority for my Department is to ensure that all employment and activation programmes deliver the best outcomes for participants.  The Government is very mindful of the large number of work programme places involved in service delivery and other valuable services to individuals and communities across Ireland.