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Pathways to Work 2016-2020 Launched

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Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister Jan O'Sullivan with (l-r) Angela Smith, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Diageo Ireland; Lorraine O'Connor, Hayleigh Foran and Daniel O'Callaghan who completed a Pathways to Work programme and found employment at the Guinness Storehouse

Pathways to Work 2016-2020 will fuel the drive to full employment and the increase in the numbers at work to 2.2 million by 2020. 

The strategy, devised by the Department of Social Protection, was launched by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Tánaiste Joan Burton and Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin today. 

It contains six key strands involving 86 dedicated actions to build on the employment progress to date under previous Pathways strategies.

Speaking at the launch, the Taoiseach said:

The overhaul of our welfare system was absolutely necessary considering the massive unemployment challenge we inherited. My promise is that we are never going back to that passive welfare system that abandoned whole families to the dole queue. I want to see people independent in work, not dependent on welfare.

It is the ambition of this Government to keep the recovery going, to make sure that nobody is left behind in that recovery, and that job creation and getting people into those jobs remains the top priority for us all.

The Tánaiste said:

Since Pathways was first introduced by my Department in 2012, unemployment has fallen from a crisis peak of 15.1% to 8.8% now. The goal of Pathways is to ensure that as many jobs as possible go to people on the Live Register, so that the recovery benefits everybody and no one is left behind. This new Pathways strategy sets out clearly how we will ensure full employment with 2.2 million people at work by 2020, by identifying key actions for us to deliver and challenging targets to meet.

Minister O’Sullivan added: 

We are determined to work side by side with the Department of Social Protection on the implementation of Pathways to Work and to give jobseekers the opportunity to upskill and reskill, so that they are in a position to take up jobs as they are created and to participate fully in our economic recovery.

The Pathways to Work 2016-2020 Strategy is available on the Department’s website here.

Read the full press release here.