Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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1172. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons referred to JobPath to date in 2021. [19841/21]

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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1173. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons who gained employment which was sustained for 13, 26, 39 and 52 weeks, respectively through JobPath in 2020. [19842/21]

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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1174. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons who have completed JobPath since 2015 who did not find employment. [19843/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1172 to 1174, inclusive, together.

In parallel with the Intreo service, the Department's contracted public employment services, including JobPath and the Local Employment Services, resumed new referrals on 8th March 2021. Resuming referrals reflects the importance of continuing to engage with the long term unemployed and other cohorts to ensure they do not become further distant from the labour market. This continues to be undertaken with due regard to public health requirements. To date in 2021, some 4,233 jobseekers have commenced their engagement with the JobPath service.

2020 witnessed the imposition of 3 national lockdowns, and several other regional lock downs to tackle the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Therefore providing employment assistance and advice to jobseekers in this environment, where unemployment reached almost 25% was for all employment service providers and for the jobseekers themselves exceptionally difficult.

Over 32,000 Jobseekers engaged with JobPath throughout 2020 with some 3,700 recorded as having started employment during their engagement period to date. Due to public health restrictions and the suspension of referrals on three separate occasions in 2020, the majority of these engagements occurred in the second half of the year and many of these clients are still in the process of being supported by the service. The recording of actual sustainment statistics for 2020 is therefore on an ongoing process.

My Department does not maintain statistics on employment details for clients who are no longer engaged with the JobPath service.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.