John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mr. O'Neill's comments bring us to the central point we are trying to make. The joint committee is examining JobPath and its impact on services and schemes such as those provided by local employment services. I should point out that I was previously a board member of Bray Area Partnership and I am familiar with the critical work done by the various organisations across the State. I had to vacate my position on the board when I was elected to the Oireachtas and, as such, no conflict of interest arises.

A couple of weeks ago, officials informed the joint committee that the Department needed to build capacity when unemployment was high. As Mr. O'Neill made clear, the local employment services would have been able to ramp up their activities across the State to meet the increased capacity required by the Department. Did the Department ask the local employment services at any point after 2011 whether they had the ability to ramp up their services? Did any communication take place at any stage?

Mr. O'Neill noted that the number of places in the Tús scheme in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown declined from 722 to 261, which is a startling reduction. I obtained figures via parliamentary questions on the number of referrals to local employment services across the State. These show a decline across the board. Mr. O'Neill indicated he would be able to provide the joint committee with figures from across the State. It would be useful if he were to furnish us with statistics in respect of Tús, community employment and so forth.

We know the Department is locked into a contract with Turas Nua and Seetec until 2020 or 2021. Are the witnesses fearful about the future of the schemes they operate? While I am aware that referrals are a major concern, are there other issues that affect the schemes operated by the local employment services and, if so, will the witnesses elaborate on them?

People with disabilities face serious challenges in terms of gaining and maintaining employment. Is there scope to increase provision for persons with disabilities on the schemes operated by the local employment services? Various reports have shown that the proportion of people with disabilities at risk of consistent poverty is much higher in Ireland than in many other European Union member states. It is also much higher than among other population groups.

I have spoken to a number of employees in various partnerships. The ethos of the local development committees means they are not-for-profit, take a bottom-up approach and are community-led. We are all aware of the tendering process in which the committees and partnerships must engage and the witnesses outlined the various difficulties they face in this regard. Concerns have arisen that in the event of one of the local development companies being unsuccessful in its tender, it may not be in a position to meet its obligations in respect of employment rights; in other words, it would be unable to pay the cost of redundancies or notice periods because these organisations do not allocate funding to cater for such a scenario. Has this concern been expressed by members of staff? I have spoken to a number of people who detailed the extensive tendering process in which the local development committees must engage. Some of the tenders have been ongoing since August or September 2017 and require a great deal of work. The organisations do not know until the last day whether they are successful and some of the staff working in them for ten or 15 years do not know if redundancy payments will be made if the tender is unsuccessful.

Is there scope to allow people in receipt of qualified adult payments to engage with the schemes? Many of those who receive the payment would like an opportunity to upskill. With unemployment levels falling and in light of the serious challenges presented by the JobPath scheme, is there an opportunity to ensure current levels of referrals are maintained?