Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On JobPath, Table 9.5 on page 47 gives a breakdown of funding for the major outsourcing. These include payments to medical certifiers, such as doctors, of €21.75 million, nurse attendance €270,000, payments to branch managers of €16 million, because many of the branch offices are outsourced, and a payment of €37 million to JobPath. The figure is there as much as any figure in any payment to any agency. Similarly, community employment involves mostly private companies and the numbers are there for them also.

Quarterly reports will be issued on JobPath. The first one is done and the second will be out later this month. The report includes financial information, the extent to which targets are being met and the satisfaction survey from customers. The target is set at 60% of the counterfactual. Essentially, an assessment is made with a control group as to what percentage would progress to full-time employment and sustain it for three months and JobPath is then asked to do 60% better. This is how the target is met.

Bear in mind it is not easy for many people who are long-term unemployed to get employment because they have been out of the labour market for so long. We are not just saying any old employment, we are saying it only counts if it is for more than 30 hours a week and if it is a job that people are able to sustain for more than three months. The idea that people are being pushed into part-time jobs or jobs that are not suited to them does not really match the contract, which states that a job has to be for 30 hours a week and a full-time job. There are one or two exceptions, such as teaching, for obvious reasons. It has to be a job the person is willing to stay in for more than three months. This is essentially how the target is picked out.

The reason there will be fewer referrals in 2017 is because fewer people are long-term unemployed. For the same reason there are fewer referrals to local employment schemes, community employment and Tús there will be fewer referrals to JobPath. Fewer people will be referred to JobPath in 2017 than in 2016. I would have thought Deputy Brady would welcome this. He might want to come back in on it.

The Department is conducting an econometric review, which will be completed by October or November. As the Deputy rightly pointed out, the contract provided for the Department to reduce the payments made to Seetec and Turas Nua if the economy recovered faster than we thought it would at the time of the recession. We have implemented this and we have reduced the payments to the two companies, recognising that employment growth has been better than we thought it would have been at the time the contracts were signed. I compliment my officials involved in negotiating the contract for ensuring provision was made for claw back in those circumstances, and we have implemented it.