John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Dr. O'Sullivan and thank her for a very informative opening statement and for dealing with her personal situation and circumstances. Having read over her submission and having listened to it again this morning, one line jumps out at me. We, like Deputy O'Dea, come across such cases in our offices weekly and from speaking to people in the real world. The line that jumped out at me was when Dr. O'Sullivan said that JobBridge, and I suppose, by extension, JobPath, should be a catalyst and not a destination. That sums it all up in one sentence. Unfortunately, the mindset within the Department and that of the Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, who was previously Minister for Social Protection, is that people should partake of the JobBridge or JobPath schemes. Instead of trying to get one's dream job, to use the Taoiseach's term, people need to get into the real world because holding out for one's dream job will not work. Unfortunately, that is the mindset that exists. Dr. O'Sullivan gave many examples of people who have gone through education and into all sorts of programmes and courses, got the qualifications and were then herded onto schemes just to get any job. It does not matter what type of job it is or the terms of pay.

At the beginning of her contribution, Dr. O'Sullivan said she was lucky to have escaped JobPath or JobBridge. Will she elaborate on that? Did she mean escaping it gave her the opportunity to get into the Trinity access programme? Could she tease that out a little bit? We have dealt with the situation of lone parents comprehensively. We have had many of the advocate groups in here, such as SPARK, and they have dealt with it extensively. From Dr. O'Sullivan's perspective, what are the main barriers in terms of seeking work? What kind of pressures did she feel under? Will she elaborate on the barriers to accessing education? That might be useful. Dr. O'Sullivan also mentioned other groups. She mentioned lone parents and young people among which there are high levels of unemployment. We know that right across the State and even in places such as Arklow in my own constituency there is huge youth unemployment. What are Dr. O'Sullivan's suggestions? Many of our young people came through education and have qualifications. What are Dr. O'Sullivan's views on that?

That is it for now. I might have a couple of other questions to ask at a later stage.