Mr. Jim Lynch:

I will talk about the selection process because it is probably more appropriate to my side of the business. The Deputy probably has a good degree of knowledge of the Intreo service. I will go back a level. When people come to us to sign on in the first instance, they are probably at a very vulnerable time in their lives. We sign them on and try to process their payments as quickly as possible. The first interaction that such a person has with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is with a departmental case officer. Most of those who are selected for JobPath will have gone through a process that involved a year-long intervention with a case officer. As part of the Intreo process, the case officer initially agrees a personal progression plan with the person in question based on what he or she wants out of life or for the future.

The first year is geared towards achieving what is in the personal progression plan. This could include participation in the back to work enterprise allowance scheme or the back to education allowance scheme. A person who falls into such an activation stream will not be selected for a Job Path referral because he or she will be in a longer-term process. Equally, we can refer people to the local employment service. If someone is with the local employment service, he or she is not available to be called for JobPath. It is only after someone has been interacting with a case officer for 12, 15 or 18 months that he or she is selected for a JobPath referral. At this point, the person in question becomes eligible for selection for JobPath, which is done purely on a random basis. We do not have any control over whether somebody should be referred. Participants are selected on a random basis. After they have been with the JobPath provider for a year or a year and a quarter, they come back to us as part of our activation process. At that point, they can be referred to something like community employment or Tús.

We all hear criticisms of JobPath from time to time, but we never hear about the positive outcomes for the people who were helped by JobPath and got jobs as a result. There have been criticisms of the training that people receive from JobPath providers. As Ms Stack has said, we administer the scheme but we are not the JobPath providers. The training that is delivered is sometimes of a different type from the training we are historically used to. Much of it would be interactive and might involve electronic training. It is possible that some jobseekers are not used to such initiatives or approaches. We have to get used to these changing processes. Our experience of JobPath on the ground has been that people come back to us with a clearer focus on what they want to do. They are often focused on community employment. As Deputy Brady and others will appreciate, when people come to us they are sometimes looking for motivation to get out of the bed in the morning. It is good that they want to have something to do. I hope that answers the Deputy's question.