Ms Anne Kavanagh:

I will address the Deputy's first question on whether we were asked to consider scaling up the local employment schemes in response to the high levels of unemployment. At no stage were local development companies given the option to create a nationwide local employment scheme, LES, model and ramp up the LES to meet the requirements. The Department engaged with us on increasing the number of clients coming to the LES under the existing model and we changed our model of engagement with clients in response to that. However, we were not given the option of choosing to broaden and deepen the LES provision, as opposed to going to a pay-by-results private tender model.