John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending. Community employment is certainly a scheme that works and rarely gives rise to complaints. The biggest complaint I get is the difficulties in accessing it, particularly in relation to JobPath. It does Trojan work in communities the length and breadth of the State. It throws open many challenges for the State. People on CE schemes are doing work that should be full-time employment offered by local authorities and other agencies across the State. Certainly it is a scheme that works.

However, it is not without its challenges from the point of view of supervisors and potential participants. Ms Stack's opening statement indicates that the reduction in unemployment levels is obviously a challenge. She also referred to other schemes such as JobPath. Having nearly 130,000 long-term unemployed - I would question as to whether some of them are long-term unemployed in the first place - referred to JobPath must have huge repercussions on CE schemes. Certainly CE supervisors are telling me that people are locked into JobPath for a 12-month contract and cannot transfer over, which is a serious problem.

Ms Stack referred to the 30,000 JobPath returnees, many of whom have a huge appetite to access training. What kind of vetting process is carried out at the first stage in the Intreo offices when referrals are being made to JobPath? What is the best route for those jobseekers to take? Is it JobPath or should it be on to CE? I hear many stories from JobPath participants spending 12 months locked into a contract with no proper training provided with people often put sitting in front of a computer week-in week-out told to go find themselves a job. That is the height of the training and is a huge problem. I ask the witnesses to give their views on that.

Ms Stack said that the same number of people on CE schemes is the same as it was in 2012. She said that 22,400 places would be available this year. That is the limit and there is another figure of 21,000. Would I be right in saying there is a deficit there of 1,400?