Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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41. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of the commitment to develop a Traveller and Roma training, employment and enterprise strategy as committed to in July 2021 under Pathways to Work; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57932/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, the Government adopted its new employment services strategy, ‘Pathways to Work 2021 – 2025’, in July. This strategy, which represents Government’s overall framework for activation and employment support policy, aims to assist those whose jobs have been lost due to COVID-19 to return to the workforce, along with those who were unemployed prior to the pandemic and those facing higher barriers to employment. Members of the Traveller and Roma communities are two such groups that face particular barriers to work and other additional challenges. Unfortunately, this is reflected in the employment and unemployment levels of these communities.

The commitment to which the Deputy refers, ‘to develop a Traveller and Roma Training, Employment and Enterprise Plan’, is of paramount importance. Work on delivering this commitment will commence shortly and is due to be completed by the end of Q2 2022. This work will be undertaken by my Department working closely with Minister of State Joe O’Brien T.D., as well as colleagues from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY), the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (DETE), the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS), SOLAS and other appropriate stakeholders.

This is only one of a range of commitments the Government has made to address challenges facing these communities. Other commitments in the Pathways to Work strategy include to:

- Explore the feasibility of introducing Traveller (and/or Roma)-specific Group Information Sessions over the lifetime of the strategy;

- Engage with community representative bodies to produce Traveller (and/or Roma)-specific employment service engagement tools;

- Consult with stakeholders from the Traveller (and/or Roma) community to advise the Public Employment Service;

- Consider making the higher level of the JobsPlus subsidy available to all employers who recruit an unemployed person of Traveller or Roma ethnicity;

- Further develop specific Community Employment schemes for Travellers and Roma;

- Deliver a bursary programme, as set out in the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025, to fund up to 100 apprentices per annum who are experiencing socio-economic disadvantage and who are from target groups, including lone parents, people with disabilities, Travellers and Roma.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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42. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will take on board concerns expressed by stakeholders in relation to the proposed reform of local employment services and review her plans in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57971/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department is now at an advanced stage in its first phase of procuring new employment services. This phase involves the procurement of regional employment services for seven counties in the Midlands and North-West across four lots. These counties do not have an existing local employment service and represent the first phase of an expansion of similar employment services across.

The Phase Two procurement, which will see the Regional Employment Service model rolled out across the State will take on board the learnings of the first phase.

This procurement process follows extensive consultations by my Department with the existing service partners and employee representatives over the last number of years.

Officials in my Department visited every Local Employment Service and Job Club in 2019 to hear their views on the design of a new employment service model. Many of the suggestions made then were incorporated into the Regional Employment Service model.

In addition, the external consultants engaged by the Department in late 2019 engaged with a cross-section of relevant stakeholders, including academics, before drafting their report.

My officials have maintained an ongoing dialogue with the stakeholders and employee representatives. On the 9th November, my officials hosted a webinar for potential tenderers for Phase Two. Approximately 150 participants had an extensive opportunity to engage with the process. Further feedback was requested which will be considered by my Department.

The Regional Employment Service model seeks to procure across the entire State a high-quality employment services targeted at supporting those individuals who are furthest from the labour market. It requires successful tenders to submit bids that focus on the quality of their service offering, the social value of their bid and their ability to access a wide range of supports and services to address the barriers to progression their clients may face.