Terms of Reference for the Labour Market Advisory Council

Terms of reference (TOR) define the purpose and structures of a project, committee, meeting, negotiation, or any similar collection of people who have agreed to work together to accomplish a shared goal. The Terms of Reference for The Labour Market Advisory Council are set out below:

The role of the Labour Market Advisory Group is to provide advice to the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the Government with regard to the efficient operation of the labour market with a particular view to increasing participation rates, minimising unemployment levels and reducing average unemployment durations.

The Council will have regard to UN Sustainable Development Goal 8 which promotes ‘sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all’.

• Providing the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the Government with input to and advice on the development of a successor employment services strategy to replace Pathways to Work and covering the period 2021 – 2025.
• Monitoring the implementation, and reporting on progress, with regard to progress of the new employment services strategy.
• Identifying key issues arising from the implementation of the strategy and suggesting possible policy and/or operational responses.
• Contributing to developing the wider public awareness of the new employment services strategy.

• Providing the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection with advice with regard to evaluation of policy and service effectiveness including contributing to the design of evaluation programmes, the interpretation of results and the identification of policy/service implications.

• Providing views, advice and support on how best to engage with the needs of employers in a manner which supports the core objective of promoting higher levels of participation and reduced levels/durations of unemployment, and decent work for all.

• Advising the Minister on the importance of, and potential responses to, employment/labour market trends including changes in sectoral employment, changes in occupational share of employment, changes in earnings levels and changes in the forms of employment (e.g. self-employment vs waged employment, part-time employment vs full-employment, temporary vs permanent employment etc.) and any upskilling or reskilling requirements.
• Providing advice to the Minister, as requested, on topical issues for example the perceived increase in so-called ‘bogus’ self-employment.
• Providing advice on the labour market implications (including temporal distribution of income) of and policy options for addressing population/labour force aging.

The Secretariat will be provided by the Department of Social Protection with Ms. Louise Kavanagh, Assistant Principal at the Department, acting as Secretary to the Council.

A research programme will be agreed on an annual basis and will be funded from within the Department’s research budget.

Download the full terms of reference document below:

• Return to Labour Market Advisory Council Homepage
• Agendas, minutes ands associated documents of the Labour Advisory Council
• Members of the Labour Market Advisory Council