Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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340. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if referrals to JobPath will cease in December 2021 as planned. [34096/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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JobPath provides employment assistance and advice to the long-term unemployed on behalf of my Department. The current JobPath contracts were originally due to expire at the end of 2020. Last October, however, in addition to contract renewals to the local employment services, job clubs and EmployAbility, I announced an extension of referrals to the JobPath service for a further 12 months until the end of 2021. This was in the context of Covid-19 restrictions which made the procurement of new services extremely difficult and placed a premium on a continuity of services.

While new referrals will cease at the end of December 2021, there will be a run-off period to enable existing clients to complete their engagement with the service. These measures were taken in order to ensure that the public employment service had sufficient capacity to support those impacted by the pandemic with access to employment services throughout 2021.