Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I get CVs on a daily basis, I get letters from people telling me they have sent their CVs everywhere. It is important for the joint committee to hear the feedback from companies. We do not have a list of companies who tell us they cannot get workers. We made a call for this information, but we received no replies. It would help our argument if we knew that there were companies that cannot get workers. We could then go directly to the various social welfare officers who are meant to be engaging with Pathways to Work. I accept it is a pilot scheme but it was meant to be rolled out nationally by May or June 2012. We are way behind that target. Pathways to Work will work if we drive it. It is meant to close the gap so that we do not have a repeat of what happened in the 1980s, when the economy recovered there were still people in long-term unemployment. I believe in the scheme but if we do not drive it will not work.

We had a discussion on offering apprenticeships as a way of creating jobs. Will Mr. Donohoe elaborate on the detail of how to go about that? At that stage nobody was saying that the offer of an apprenticeship were not being taken up. Mr. O'Brien mentioned that apprenticeships were being offered, NGM is one, that are not being filled. That information did not come up before. That is a matter of concern, because it is new information to us.