Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their interesting presentations. Is Mr. Power aghast at what he is hearing from the Department? It is not so much that there is a contradiction but there are huge gaps which Mr. Power outlined in his summary report. However, according to the summary report there is 22% for very satisfactory, 36% for satisfactory and 11% either way. That is 69% which would be veering on satisfactory, which lines up with much of what the Department says. I might be wrong about that but that is the impression. If there were three things Mr. Power could do tomorrow, what would be the three priorities? It appears to be working, but there are gaps. Could Mr. Power tell us what those gaps are? Also, I note that nearly 1,000 were aged over 55 years. I do not see any of their reactions in the report. Perhaps he would comment on that.

Turning to the Department's representatives, I recall hearing about, and being fond of, the concept of Gateway. I do not know if other members remember it, but it was going to be creative, imaginative and implemented through the county councils. The Youth Guarantee uptake in 2014 was only 192. Can the Department give an update on Gateway and how it is working? Also, should there be more in the vocational training opportunities scheme? The numbers are quite low there.

They are quite general questions. Even as an independent, I consider this to have been an incredible train to get out of a station, and it is working very well. Many people, including those sitting in front of me, put a great deal of effort into it.

The witnesses are right, and as for the two new training programmes that now are to be brought on board, namely, the First Steps and JobsPlus Youth programmes, it will be interesting to see how they fare and what has been learned from the reports and what to avoid. I ask Mr. Power and the representatives from the Department to respond to these general questions.