John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

They cited specific programmes that were allowed to proceed without the requirement for open competitive procurement. I quote the presentation made by Mr. Donal Coffey to this committee on behalf of SIPTU:

A clearer reading of EU guidelines on competition policy and rules pertaining to state aid outlines how member states can work within the EU procurement environment while still protecting services of general interest... Services of general interest expressly include services provided directly to the person, such as social assistance services, employment and training services, childcare, social housing or long-term care of the elderly and people with disabilities, according to Murphy and Deane.

This shows that we do not have to have a procurement process. The guidelines are there. I would be interested to see the legal advice the Minister mentioned.

Her submission also states "services complement rather than compete with each other" and "there is more than enough work for all our service providers". That is interesting. I have challenged her on this time and time again. CE schemes throughout the State are struggling. There is a massive number of vacancies on them. She will say that this is because there is less unemployment and there are not enough people to fill them. That is nonsense. The number of referrals to JobPath continues to increase. More than 206,000 people have been referred to JobPath. People are now being referred to JobPath for a third year. They are essentially doing exactly the same thing time and time again. The initial referral of €311 is paid not just once or twice but three times. It is paid for doing exactly the same thing. There is competition there. People are being referred to JobPath and that is unfortunately impacting on the other schemes.

There are a couple of other interesting lines I would like to touch on.

As was mentioned, this is unlikely to require a major overhaul of service provision but it will require refocusing on effort. I ask the Minister to tease that out a bit, because she also said that between Intreo, LES and JobPath staff we have approximately 800 case officers at present. The contract for JobPath, Turas Nua and Seetec concludes this year. Is the Minister clearly stating there is a role for JobPath into the future? Will there be a renewed contract with JobPath, Turas Nua and Seetec? The Minister will be aware of a cross-party Dáil motion calling for the ending of referrals to JobPath and solely investing in schemes such as LES, job clubs and the other successful schemes. Does she believe there is a role for JobPath, Turas Nua and Seetec into the future?

There is major concern over the type of model with the tweaking the Minister is proposing. If she puts this out to open procurement, what are her intentions? The fear is that she is moving from the not-for-profit community model that works to a more privatised model. The concern in the LES and job clubs is that she is moving to a privatised payment-by-results model and away from the community. Is that the intention? The concern is that the payment-by-results model does not work. The model that works is the not-for-profit LES based in community with the wraparound services that are provided in terms of upskilling, further education and all the other things that are not taken into account when their achievements are considered. I would appreciate answers to those questions. I hope I will have another chance because I have many more.