Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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136. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 87 of 17 May 2022, the status of phase 2 of the procurement process for the new local area employment service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34631/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I can confirm to the Deputy that the preferred bidders for the new Intreo Partners Local Area Employment Services have today been notified, bringing closer the date of a roll-out of phase 2 employment services.  In particular, specialised employment services for those farthest from the labour market - previously available in just twelve counties - will soon be available State-wide for the first time.  

This procurement process was preceded by extensive consultation with all stakeholders, including the community sector providers and their representative body, the ILDN.  Each existing provider was visited on site by my officials and asked for their views on the way forward for the best provision of employment services while there has also been engagement with the staff representative bodies.  In addition, the external consultants engaged by the Department to assist in the restructuring of these services also consulted with existing providers.

My Department extended the deadline for the Requests for Tenders to 25 April to ensure all interested parties, including the community sector, had sufficient time to prepare quality tender responses that reflect their experience and capacity to deliver a quality service.

My Department will now engage with the preferred bidders with a view to signing contracts and establishing new services at the earliest opportunity.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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137. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she has given further consideration to her Department providing support with redundancy payments for local employment service and jobs club branches when their services cease; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38132/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department has, since 2019, been developing a new model of externally provided public employment services.  This is a legal requirement to ensure such services are procured through a competitive open procurement process.

Since the beginning of this process in 2019, my Department has engaged extensively with existing providers and representative bodies, including the Irish Local Development Network and trade unions.  In particular, my Department has gone to great efforts to ensure that existing providers are in a position to compete for the provision of these new employment services.

This involved a two phased approach.  First, running a limited competition in four geographic areas which did not already have local employment services and then, using the learnings from this process, to fine-tune the request for tenders in phase 2. 

Taking these learnings on board, phase 2 included an increased number of lots, a greater emphasis on community linkages and, most importantly, a substantially increased minimum level of referrals for each lot.  These increased referrals mean that the annual income under the new model should exceed the existing cost base of LES and Job Clubs operating in each Lot.

Therefore, any existing provider who has successfully bid for a service should at least match and in many cases exceed their current income.  On this basis the need for redundancies in these circumstances is unclear.  However, subject to meeting the requirements of the contracted service in terms of staffing commitments and ratios of case officers to customers, the final staffing of the service is a matter for the successful bidder.

The preferred bidders for the new Intreo Partners Local Area Employment Services have just been notified.  The next step is the finalising of contracts and the commencement of referrals to the new service.  Pending this, my Department has extended the contracts of most LES and Job Clubs until the end of August.  I am advised that a small number of providers have declined the extension offer, which is at their discretion and they will have communicated their decision and rationale to their staff.

In circumstances where existing providers chose not to bid for the new services or were unsuccessful then I would expect that, as a first option, providers should look to redeploy any staff affected to other functions within their organisations.  However, where this is not possible, and if these employers are unable to finance redundancy payments, then my Department's Redundancy and Insolvency service will, in accordance with relevant legislation, be able to make provision for statutory redundancy payments for any affected staff.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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138. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the companies that have won new contracts for the provision of local employment services; the amount of funding involved in each case; and the duration of the contact; the current providers of Local Employment Services that have lost their contracts for public employment services a as result of his tendering out process; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38524/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The preferred bidders for the Intreo Partner Local Area Employment Service were notified today; the procurement process reaches final completion when the contracts have been awarded.

The funding being provided in each lot depends in large part on the fees tendered by the preferred bidders. These will be incorporated into the contracts now being drafted by my officials and, on an individual basis, will be commercially sensitive. However, overall this constitutes a significant expansion of services, from just twelve to twenty-six county coverage, with a commensurate increase in resources for these new services.

These Intreo Partners LAES contracts will be for a minimum of four years, including three years of referrals and one year of "run-off" where existing clients are engaged. Contracts may be extended for up to two years.