Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the interesting information. People are our most valuable resource. Anything that can be done to try to get people into work and to optimise people's potential must be encouraged. The efforts that have been made to date are welcome. There are more than 400,000 on the live register, so more needs to be done. JobsPlus is a very positive initiative. I wonder if it can be tweaked in any way to make it better. Have the employers who have not signed up for JobsPlus given the officials any feedback on how the scheme could be made more attractive for them?

I have spoken to people who, because of various expenses - for example, the cost of travelling to work - believe the extra €50 payment under JobBridge does not make it viable for them to take up work. If the payment was greater, they might be inclined to take up the opportunity of a JobBridge placement. In a perfect world that could be done, but there would be a cost. How was the €50 figure payable under JobBridge arrived at? The fact that three out of every five progress within five months to full employment shows that it is a positive labour activation measure. That is a good result. We need to focus attention on the scheme and try to push it further. Is there any statistical data on what would be involved or can we even check the viability of that scheme?