As part of its measure to reduce unemployment, the Department of Social Protection offers a number of employment supports to employers.  These include the following:

JobsPlus

If you employ a person on a full-time basis who has been unemployed for 12 – 24 months, you may be eligible to receive a payment of €7,500 from the Department. This amount would be paid to you monthly in arrears over a two-year period provided you continue to employ the person. This financial incentive is increased to €10,000 if you employ a person who has been unemployed for more than 24 months.

The employment you provide must be for at least 30 hours per week and must span a minimum of 4 days in each week.   More details are on www.jobsplus.ie

JobBridge – the National Internship Scheme

This Scheme allows you to offer work experience for either 6 or 9 months in your business to a person who has been unemployed for at least three months in the last 6 months.   The person must be getting a social welfare payment (i.e. a Jobseeker’s payment, One-Parent Family Payment or Disability Allowance) or signing for unemployment credits.

There is no cost to you in providing this internship as the Department would continue to pay the person their social welfare payment plus a weekly top-up of €50 while on the internship. Further details are available on www.jobbridge.ie

Free advertising of job vacancies

You can advertise a job vacancy to highly skilled and motivated jobseekers by getting in touch with our National Contact Centre at Freephone 1800 611116.   Alternatively, you can upload the vacancy yourself to the Jobs Ireland website (www.jobsireland.ie) by using this link: www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Register-a-vacancy_holder.aspx