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Taoiseach Enda Kenny, together with Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, Social Protection Minister Joan Burton and Jobs Minister Richard Bruton today launched JobsPlus, a new employer incentive scheme. The scheme will be operated by the Department of Social Protection, and will incentivise businesses to hire jobseekers from the Live Register, boost job creation and reduce long-term unemployment.

The scheme will see the State cover approximately €1 in €4 of the typical cost of hiring someone who has been on the Live Register for 12 months or more.

The incentive will be payable, on a monthly basis, over a two-year period and will provide two levels of payment:

• a payment of €7,500 over two years to the employer for each person recruited who has been unemployed for between 12 and 24 months; and
• €10,000 over two years to the employer for each person recruited who has been unemployed for more than 24 months.

Launching the scheme at the premises of Eishtec in Waterford City, the Taoiseach said:

 The Government will do everything in its power to ensure that work always pays. As we help jobseekers into work we need to make sure that those on the dole are at the top of the queue when new job opportunities come along. Making sure that a recovery in jobs does not bypass the long-term unemployed will be one of the biggest challenges facing the country. The new JobsPlus scheme is another step forward on Ireland's path to recovery by incentivising employers to take on long-term jobseekers who might otherwise find it difficult to get their foot in the door.

Eishtec is an outsourced contact centre providing tailored solutions to businesses, has availed of previous Government incentive schemes to recruit staff and is expected to be among the firms availing of JobsPlus.

In order to qualify for JobsPlus, the employer must offer full-time employment of over 30 hours per week, spanning at least four days per week to eligible recruits.

Any jobseeker who has been in receipt of a jobseeker’s payment from the Department of Social Protection for 12 months or more will be considered eligible to be recruited under this incentive.