John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that, though in his reply to my correspondence the Minister said he would let me know whether it was going to be published. It is critical that we look at what the auditor has identified before any new scheme comes forward. My party has put forward alternatives to JobBridge and whatever the Minister brings forward should not amount to an exploitation of people for a minuscule amount of money. There are real alternatives and I hope the Minister takes them on board.

In response to questions on the subject, the Minister said he would have a look at JobPath and at Turas Nua and Seetec. A review of these is now well overdue as there are serious issues, particularly regarding Turas Nua and Seetec. The Minister asked me to come back to him if I had heard of any issues about which people had been in touch with me. There are many, one of which involved a man who found a job in his own right, independently of Turas Nua and Seetec, but was hounded by Seetec, a private company, which wanted to know who his employer was.

There is a payment for operators if they have found employment for someone but Seetec hounded that man until he handed over details of his new employer. I am not sure whether Seetec was trying to claim a financial reward for finding work for the man in question but, as I understand matters, it had nothing to do with Seetec. Another man, highly qualified but out of work, was hounded by the same body to find a job. The latter is qualified as a journalist. He was told not to wait around for a dream job but to look for something "a bit beneath him", with examples of work on building sites and in warehouses cited. He was threatened with having all his payments cut if he did not take a job that was beneath him. There are many other cases which I could talk about, but will not. I ask for a commitment from the Minister that he will review these cases. Any process would need to be initiated before the budget.

The discretionary clothing allowance, which was decided on by CWOs, was cut by the previous Minister. There was a lot of debate on it and there were some suggestions that it had been used for purposes for which it was not originally intended. Many elderly people were entitled to this payment to buy clothes and would buy themselves a heavy coat with the money in January or February, or a suit for a funeral when there had was a bereavement in the family. The payment has been completely done away with and this needs to be addressed. We might not be able to bring it back in its previous form but there needs to be some allowance for elderly people. The bereavement grant was also done away with and also needs to reinstated.