Mr. John McKeon:

The first issue was displacement and exploitation. The Deputy mentioned both JobBridge and community employment, and, of course, the issue of displacement could be made in the context of community employment as well. The argument is that if community employment was not providing some services, would other service providers give those services? It is important to understand the role of most activation schemes is to try to help people who might not otherwise get a job get a foot in the door. It is about trying to encourage employers to give people a chance. Measured against those terms, JobBridge has been successful. We have just published an independent report by Indecon, which was separately independently reviewed by the Labour Market Council, that showed very strong employment progression from JobBridge into paid employment. It indicated 79% of people ended up in employment and 64% are still in employment. That uplift was 32% against a matched control group. For example, that would have compared John McKeon against somebody who was unemployed with the same background, qualifications and experiences, meaning that person had a 32% better chance of getting employment and sustaining it having gone on JobBridge. There are independent experts on the Labour Market Council, including some eminent international economists, and they see that as the best performance they have seen anywhere in Europe. Measured on that metric, it has been successful.

I accept the issue of payment and I know the concern raised by the Deputy that people must work for their welfare. The condition in the social welfare regulations is that people must be available for and genuinely seeking work. Nobody is required to work for their welfare. For example, the JobBridge scheme is entirely voluntary, as is the community employment scheme. People do not have to participate and there is no penalty if they do not participate. People do not have to work for their welfare but they are presented with opportunities to work if they wish to do so, with a top-up payment, and then to use that experience, in effect, as a testimony for other employers. It tells them what the person can do. I do not know if that has addressed the question.