Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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1103. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection number of referrals her Department has made to each local employment service office in each of the years 2017 to 2020, inclusive; the targets for referrals for each office for the same time period; and the targets for 2021. [39306/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Local Employment Services (LES) provide a one-to-one employment assistance and advice service primarily for the long-term unemployed.

Referrals to this service are managed by the local Intreo Centre and are based on a replacement rate dependent on the speed of movement of clients through the LES and on the agreed capacity of the relevant service provider. Referrals to each LES are also subject to changing local labour market conditions. There are no annual targets for referrals to the LES, rather the Department contracts capacity on an annual basis.

It should be noted that, due to public health restrictions, referrals to all contracted public employment services including the LES were suspended on three separate occasions during 2020 ( March, October and December). Referrals for 2021 recommenced in March 2021.

Table 1 Reflects the number of persons who were referred directly by Intreo and who engaged with Local Employment Service, by provider, in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, inclusive.