Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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163. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of young persons under 25 years of age on the youth employment support scheme in January 2020 and January 2021; the funding allocated to support young persons under 25 on the scheme in 2020 and 2021; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30118/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Youth Employment Support Scheme (YESS) was introduced on 1st October 2018 and has been open to applications since. YESS targeted young jobseekers aged between 18 and 24 who are long-term unemployed or who face barriers to employment. The scheme aimed to provide jobseekers with the opportunity to learn basic work and social skills in a supportive environment while on a work placement. The scheme provided a supportive structure for participants, including case worker support for both placement hosts and jobseekers.

Since the scheme's inception, a total of 990 people have commenced a placement, with 50 jobseekers currently on YESS placements. 

The type of work experience undertaken by participants involved roles across a number of different sectors including - community and voluntary, hospitality and food, ICT and telecoms, manufacturing, retail, sales and marketing, science and healthcare and construction. Recruitment to the scheme in the scheme was severely affected by Covid-19 during 2020, with fewer hosts advertising vacancies due to temporary suspension of operations and social mobility and distancing requirements. 

While €2.44m was allocated to the scheme for 2020, provisional estimates of expenditure show an outturn of €1.7 million for the year.  The Budget allocation for the scheme this year is €3.35m.

In the month of January 2020 there were 297 active participants on YESS with 59 closures and 46 new starts that month. By comparison, in January 2021 there were 131 active participants on YESS.

I intend to shortly launch a new work placement scheme to provide work experience for jobseekers who have been unemployed, including time spent on PUP, for more than six months regardless of age.  A particular objective is to provide a mechanism for those with recent work experience or with sector specific skills to pivot into new employment/jobs through additional learning with new and relevant work experience.

Existing YESS participants will be given the option to transfer onto the new programme prior to its launch, subject to the agreement of both the host and the participant. If either party wishes to maintain the existing arrangement, they will be able to complete their YESS scheme under the existing terms.

The budget allocations for YESS in 2020 and 2021 are set out in tabular format below.

Budget Allocations for YESS

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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164. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of young persons under 25 years of age supported by the JobsPlus youth scheme in 2020 and to date in 2021; the funding allocated to support young persons under 25 on the scheme in 2020 and 2021; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30119/21]

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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165. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of employers who have applied for and received the enhanced JobsPlus youth scheme subsidy for employing young persons aged between 25 to 29 years since July 2020; and the total number of young persons aged 25 to 29 years supported on the jobsPlus scheme since July 2020. [30120/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 164 and 165 together.

JobsPlus provides a direct monthly financial incentive to employers who recruit employees from the Live Register and those transitioning into employment.  It provides employers with two levels of payment - €7,500 or €10,000 over two years - paid in monthly instalments. 

The scheme has an overall budget allocation of €28.3m for 2021.  Funding is not, however,  ring-fenced for any demographic over another.

The number of people under 25 years of age supported in 2020 to end of May 2021 is provided in Table 1.

The July Jobs Stimulus announced an increase to the numbers that could avail of the scheme and the number of JobsPlus places was increased by 2,000 places with effect from 1st August 2020.  

The JobsPlus Scheme guidelines were revised to cater for the changes announced, as follows: 

- The qualifying criteria were revised so that those under 30 can now avail of the support after 4 months on the Live Register in the previous 6 months. 

- Time spent in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment can be counted for the purposes of this eligibility 

The total number of Employers and the number of Employees aged 25-29 years who availed of JobsPlus since July 2020 is provided in Table 2. 

Table 1.  

Table 2.

Over the course of the last fifteen months, numbers on Jobsplus were impacted by COVID related public health restrictions , with the resultant limitations on business activity and employment levels.With the continued gradual opening of the economy and business sectors over the coming months, my Department intends to further promote the value of Jobsplus both to employers and unemployed in order to ensure that the opportunities provided by the scheme are fully availed of.