Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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548. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons that have had a sanction imposed on their payment for failing to engage with the JobPath services in 2019, 2020 and to date in 2021, by county in tabular form. [24472/21]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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549. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons that have been referred to the JobPath service in 2019, 2020 and to date in 2021, by county in tabular form. [24473/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 548 and 549 together.

My Department provides a range of employment supports for long-term unemployed jobseekers and those most distant from the labour market to secure and sustain full-time paid employment. These supports include the JobPath service.

The range of factors to be considered when applying a reduced rate of payment preclude me from making a definitive statement that the sole context involved in the application of a reduced rate would have been non engagement with the JobPath service. In addition the Deputy should note that that reduced rates of payment have been suspended since March 2020 as part of the Department's response to the pandemic.

The process for sanctioning clients who do not engage with the JobPath service is exactly the same as the process for clients who fail to engage with the Department’s employment service Intreo or by other contracted providers, the Local Employment Services and Job Clubs.

In the normal course of business, the JobPath service providers would submit non-engagement notifications to the Department. This is an administrative function which is not necessarily indicative of any particular outcome. In the majority of cases the client will be contacted, and their appointment will be rescheduled. Some clients may have multiple non-engagements recorded without any sanction.

Contracted providers do not apply or recommend the application of a reduced rate of payment. They simply inform the Department if a jobseeker is failing to attend the service without good cause. The application of reduced rates of payment is entirely a matter for my Department and officials involved will take all relevant factors into account.

In the interests of natural justice, a jobseeker who fails to engage with an employment service, whether that is provided directly by my Department’s Intreo Service or via a contracted service provider, is given both written and verbal warnings and an opportunity to comply before a reduced rate of payment is applied. Furthermore, Jobseekers can, through co-operation with my Department's employment services, benefit from early re-instatement of the full rate of Jobseeker’s payment.

Of those clients who were referred to and engaged with JobPath in 2019 , 2020 and thus far in 2021 some 2,235 unique clients had a reduced rate of payment applied at some stage during their engagement with JobPath. These are presented on a per county basis in table (i).

The JobPath service seeks to support the long-term unemployed to obtain and sustain paid employment. Covid restrictions have had a significant impact on the 2020 provision of services compared to previous years. Referrals stopped 3 times in 2020 (March, October and December).

Referrals recommenced in March 2021 and are continuing. The two JobPath providers, Seetec and Turas Nua have continued to work with those already referred and have moved to a remote model of service delivery engaging with customers remotely. The number of jobseekers who engaged with the JobPath service in 2019 , 2020 & to date in 2021 are set out on a per county basis in Table (ii).

Table (i) Clients referred to and engaged with JobPath in 2019, 2020 & 2021 (end March) who have had reduced rates of payment applied during their JobPath engagement period, listed by county.

Please note: the figures in the above table have been rounded to the nearest 10, counties where there is a total of 10 clients or less have been marked as <10.

Table (ii) Clients referred to and engaged with JobPath in 2019, 2020 & 2021 (end March) listed by referral year & county

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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550. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will provide an update in respect of her contracts with JobPath service providers; the amount paid in respect of these companies historically to date; if she has agreed an updated service level agreement with the providers; if the current contract with providers has an optional extension built into it; and her plans to conduct a value for money appraisal of the services provided. [24474/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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To date the total amount paid to those providing the JobPath service is €259.6m. The yearly spend on JobPath is provided in the following table.

Last October, I announced an extension of referrals to the JobPath service for a further twelve months until the end of 2021. At that time I also announced similar extensions to the Local Employment Services, Job Clubs and EmployAbility to ensure their services extended into 2021.

These measures were taken in order to ensure the Public Employment Service had sufficient capacity to support those impacted by the pandemic with access to employment services during 2021.

While new referrals to the JobPath service will cease at the end of December, there will be a run out period enabling existing clients to complete their engagement with the service. In the interim, my Department is continuing to examine procurement options for the provision of all contracted employment services to ensure that the Public Employment Service has sufficient capacity in 2022 to support all those who need our assistance and help in securing new employment.

In 2019, my Department published an econometric review, in partnership with the OECD, measuring the JobPath service's effectiveness. Findings showed that weekly earnings of people who secured employment after JobPath engagement were 17% higher than the weekly employment earnings of people who secured employment without the support of JobPath. Taken with the 26% improvement in employment outcomes – the likelihood of a person getting a job - in the same period, it means the overall positive impact was 37% in 2018 for those supported by the JobPath service.