James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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32. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the details of the planned allocation of the additional €185 million funding announced in budget 2022 for the implementation of the Pathways to Work 2021-2025 national employment services strategy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [58012/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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‘Pathways to Work 2021 – 2025’, which was launched in July, outlines the Government’s new employment services strategy to support those who have lost jobs, or are otherwise unemployed, in transitioning into employment.

Budget 2022 reflects Government's commitment to deliver on this Strategy. An additional €185m has been allocated to fund a variety of targeted active labour market measures designed to support those whose jobs were lost due to the pandemic and those who were unemployed pre-pandemic.

Under the Pathways to Work initiative, Budget 2022 is providing an additional allocation of almost €13m to Community Employment schemes, which by offering part-time and temporary placements in local communities, assist long-term unemployed and otherwise disadvantaged people to get back to work.

The Tús Initiative will receive an additional allocation of €18m. This scheme provides short term working opportunities for long term unemployed people, which are provided by community and voluntary organisations.

The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA) and the Back to Work Education Allowance (BTEA) will receive funding of €17m and €46m respectively. The BTWEA encourages social welfare recipients to become self-employed by enabling those in receipt of payments to keep a percentage of their payments for up to 2 years. The BTEA supports persons who are unemployed, lone parents, have a disability, or other groups, in taking part in second and third level education courses.

An additional almost €62m will be allocated to the Work Placement Experience Programme which supports jobseekers in re-training and gaining experience in new areas of work. Also addressing the area of training and experience, the Training Support Grant will receive additional support of €9m, to provide individual jobseekers with short term training supports and related interventions to fill skills gaps.

JobsPlus, a scheme which provides monetary incentives and supports to employers that employ jobseekers, will receive an additional €18m, and Job Clubs will receive support of a further €3m under Pathways to Work, to provide jobseekers with individualised assistance across a range of services, such as supporting CV preparation.

I trust this sets out the position for the Deputy.