Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is the old chicken-and-egg problem with young people walking into one's office who say they are qualified and looking for a job: one cannot find a job without experience and one cannot get experience unless one has a job. Deputy Adams's view of the JobBridge scheme is not shared by these young people. Yes, there have been a few cases - I have come across them myself - in which things might have been better, but I have so many pieces of correspondence from young people who are qualified and were taken on by firm after firm and who have been more than able to measure up to the challenges they have met. The evidence, if evidence is needed, is that 66% of them find permanent employment or leave to start their own firms. This speaks for the value of their training, their commitment and their capacity to rise to that challenge. I do not accept at all Deputy Adams's version of the failure of JobBridge. From a European point of view this scheme is very successful and is being examined by other countries as a model to be replicated.

The Gateway scheme does not force people into employment.

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