Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I would like to get answers from all three organisations to the questions I want to ask.

The first question is to the Department and, indeed, Seetec and Turas Nua. Would the witnesses agree that the introduction of JobPath and this way of dealing with unemployment, including the allocation of this work to those companies, came about as a result of pressure from the troika when we were in trouble in 2011 because when one looks back at the figures, the unemployment rates from 2011 up to now are quite different? Clearly that relates to a growth in the economy. The long-term unemployed are presented as the problem not the economy. I find it incredible we would put across a scenario that there is an inherent problem in being unemployed rather than a problem in the economy with the collapse of the banking and financial sectors and austerity and cuts that ensued from it. I would like the witnesses to comment on the role of the troika in pressuring us to bring in this model and that question is particularly for the people from the Department.

On the question of the signing-----