Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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1181. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons that undertook a programme (details supplied) during its existence; and the cost of the programme. [20065/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The programme referred to was a work placement programme delivered by FÁS which started in June 2009. The programme provided up to nine months work experience for unemployed people who were in receipt of a qualifying payment from the department.

There were two streams in the programme, Stream 1 was for graduates and Stream 2 was for unemployed people generally, with places reserved for those aged under 25. While on the programme participants continued to be paid their basic social welfare payment so there was no separate, additional costs for the scheme. The Department had no function in the administration of the programme at that time.

The responsibility for running the programme was transferred to the Department from FÁS in 2011. When JobBridge was launched in June 2011 those on the Work Placement Programme were offered the opportunity to transfer. The financial incentive associated with JobBridge made it a more attractive option. When JobBridge ended the Youth Employment Support Scheme was developed to offer work experience for jobseekers aged under 25. The work placement programme ended in 2016.

At the end of 2016 the total number of Work Placement Participants was 1,785, of these 1,234 were on the graduate stream and 551 were on the ordinary level stream.