Mr. Ian Power:

My comments were not mutually exclusive with those of Mr. Carroll. A person needs to not be able to do the job at the start, which includes needing to get the experience of doing it. Just because someone knows the theory does not mean he or she can do the job.

It is not fair to say that there is no compulsion involved in the JobBridge programme. There is not explicit compulsion. However, for a young person whose rate is €100 a week with an additional €50 a week if he or she participates in JobBridge, because of the lack of provision in other schemes, JobBridge is the only show in town. It was the only show in town for young people during the recession. We want to see an increased breadth of provision for the 18,500 young people who are long-term unemployed.

The cut to under-26s is entirely unfair and inequitable. Young people are expected to survive on sums that we do not expect people aged 27 to survive on. It is not the case that every young person lives at home with his or her parents and is supported by them. Some young people took the view that, being on €144 a week, they would go on JobBridge and get some extra money, but some of them were forced into opportunities with which they were not particularly enamoured. This affects the effectiveness of the scheme. The programme is of value to the majority of participants but we are trying to improve the experience of everyone.

I am concerned about the Youth Guarantee. We probably have not spoken about it in terms of its success and how to roll it out nationally as much as we should have today. It has not been rolled out nationally and I am interested to hear from the delegates from the Department of Social Protection on the plan or strategy for a wider roll-out. I agree with the concept of internships but we should not be considering them as the only option. Internships used to be paid. Perhaps we will be able to return to a situation in which those internships are paid, which would be the ideal situation, but this is part of a suite of things we should be pursuing. What is the strategy? We need to find out the strategy today.