David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I declare a conflict of interest in that I have called for JobPath to be scrapped, so anything I say should be seen clearly in that context. The total cost was €163 million. The number of participants in full-time employment for more than 12 months was actually quite low. That was the issue we had raised with those concerned. The other point that needs to be put into context when we are given the figures is that there was a recovering economy. People were getting jobs naturally. It is hard in that case to establish how effective JobPath was or what additionality it resulted in, even for those who may have gone through its programme. There are many, with whom we are dealing in our constituency offices, who had very bad experiences. This is only one element. We were looking at it more from a cost perspective. I do not believe we were getting value for money. I am all for labour activation programmes that work and add value, but it is very difficult to conclude, in a recovering economy, that we got value for money. I argue we did not given that there were more jobs being created naturally in the economy and given the very small number in sustained employment under the scheme. Some of the individuals went through the programme a second time. This also has to be noted. Obviously, the organisations will defend their expenditure and themselves but I would not subscribe to the view that we got value for money. Given, however, that I have called for JobPath to be scrapped, that should be noted as well.