The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, said yesterday the Employment Action Plan, introduced in September, had made a major contribution to the falling rate of unemployment.
The plan, according to officials in the Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Social, Community and Family Affairs, is an effective and innovative method to move people from unemployment into jobs.
However, for the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU), the scheme may just be taking people off the live register and putting them on to employment schemes.
Opposition politicians also criticised the plan in September, with the Labour Party describing it as a "punitive approach". The then leader of Democratic Left, Mr Prionsias de Rossa, said there was no new ideas in the plan.
The plan at the moment applies to those on the live register between the ages of 18 and 25, although the Government intends to extend it to those between 25 and 34 years in May.
Under the plan, once somebody is on the live register for longer than six months, they are invited for an assessment interview with the State training agency, FAS.
If somebody fails to attend for interview, the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs are contacted and the individual's unemployment payments may be reviewed, although there is an independent appeal procedure.
According to officials from the two Departments, when claimants are contacted first and asked for interview, about 10 per cent immediately stop claiming unemployment assistance, while others leave the live register in subsequent weeks.
According to figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, covering the period from September to January, some 47 per cent of the 3,969 young people covered by the scheme, left the live register by the middle of January.
Almost 70 per cent of this group had entered employment, a FAS programme or returned to education, according to the figures.
Of those remaining on the live register, 22 per cent were receiving continuing support from their FAS support office - with a view to securing employment soon.
The vast majority of the remainder were having their cases "reviewed", according to the Department.
At the time the plan was introduced, Ms Harney said the State had no obligation to support people who refused job offers and, she said, unemployment payments had to have some "conditionality" attached.
The INOU said yesterday that not enough information was available about the plan. It said that, while many people may leave the live register under the scheme, the breakdown of how many received jobs or went on a scheme is not detailed enough.
Whatever about that argument, the biggest challenge for the plan lies ahead as it starts to cover older people on the live register. The problem here is the oldest groups on the live register have the greatest concentration of long term unemployment, while also having the lowest skill levels.
It will be a more difficult task for FAS and the two Departments to find jobs for these people, without putting adequate sums into training and reeducation. The time taken to retrain people may mean a much slower reduction in the live register figures than was achieved when dealing with those under 25.
