Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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835. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection for an overview of data collected on the effectiveness of labour activation policies administered through Intreo centres; the frequency with which Intreo centres successfully match service users with employment; the data on the type of employment generally recommended by Intreo centres; the data on individuals' earnings after entering employment with the assistance of Intreo centres; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24458/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department’s Intreo Employment Services engage with jobseekers to support them to find work. All customers in receipt of a jobseekers payment with the exception of those aged over 62, must engage with Intreo and avail of suitable supports offered to them.

A distinctive client journey has been embedded into the employment services process. Jobseekers on the live register engage with Intreo Employment Services in the first 12 months and are then referred firstly to the Intreo Partner National Employment Service (NES) and after 24 months, to the Intreo Partner Local Area Employment Service (LAES), which is designed to engage with those with greater barriers to the labour market. Therefore, the jobseeker is referred to the most appropriate service at each point in time on their job seeking journey.

Intreo Employment Services and Intreo Partners offer an individualised employment service. Employment Services Officers engage with jobseekers to develop a Personal Progression Plan (PPP), which will identify steps the jobseeker will take to support them to progress to sustainable employment. Where a jobseeker is considered job-ready they can be matched or referred to suitable job vacancies, where a jobseeker requires additional supports to become job-ready they will be referred to supports like further education and training.

During 2024, Intreo Employment Services engaged with just over 127,500 customers who attended approximately 213,800 appointments. Throughout 2024 a total of 92,510 referrals were made by Intreo to a wide range of employment opportunities, supports and services including 22,785 to job vacancies, 22,136 to further education and training and 22,084 to employment programmes.

Granular information on the type of employment jobseekers are referred to is not available nor indeed is information on their earnings after taking up employment. However, Intreo Employment Services Officers do match jobseekers to suitable vacancies based on their individual profiles and skills.

My Department provides an online jobs portal - JobsIreland.ie - where jobseekers can apply for open vacancies and employers can advertise their job vacancies. Further help is provided to jobseekers to create a CV and find their ideal job while also assisting employers to advertise their vacancies and match their requirements to jobseeker profiles already uploaded into the JobsIreland portal.

In addition, a key element of the work of Intreo Employment Services is to organise events to bring employers and jobseekers together, or to inform employers of the supports available from the Department. A total of 833 events were organised in 2024, leading to nearly 7,000 clients progressing to either employment or courses.

My Department’s active labour market policies and programmes such as its work programmes, recruitment incentives and service provisions are continuously reviewed to ensure that they remain responsive to developments in the labour market. For example, the OECD published a review of the CE and Tús schemes, highlighting a positive impact on the employment and earnings of participants, especially for older participants on CE and younger participants on Tús. The review also found that participants are less likely to rely on disability payments and are more likely to find employment after their participation.

I trust this clarifies the matter.