Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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108. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she intends to carry out a review of the JobPath scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24496/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Referrals to the JobPath service are due to cease in June this year and, following a comprehensive review of public employment services, new services are currently being procured, to be in place later this year.

My Department previously undertook an evaluation of JobPath in partnership with the OECD. The 2019 OECD econometric evaluation of JobPath, published by my Department, demonstrated that the outcomes for participating jobseekers, both in terms of employment and earnings, are better than those of non-participants.

Weekly earnings of people who secured employment after JobPath engagement were 17% higher than the weekly employment earnings of people who secured employment without the support of JobPath in 2018.

Taken with the 26% improvement in employment outcomes in the same period, it suggests that the overall positive employment/earnings impact was 37% in 2018 for those who were supported by the JobPath service. These findings demonstrate that jobseekers who engage with JobPath are significantly more likely to get a positive employment outcome than those not supported by the service.

The Department will be updating this exercise in due course and continually reviews its employment service provision, including the new services which are currently being procured. As per the Programme for Government commitments the Department is expanding and extending employment service provision so that for the first time the full range of employment services will be available to those furthest from the labour market across the entire State.