Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. I thank Mr. Egan and Mr. Kane for their presentation. I have a couple of questions. Mr. Egan in his presentation said he would postpone the process for a short period into the new year. Will he confirm what a short period is? Is it a number of months? Is it the full 12 months? Will he also commit to the request by both unions which we met earlier that he would postpone this process for 12 months to allow for the best possible consultation between unions, stakeholders, and the Department to formulate policy on that? Mr. Egan might come back to us on a policy in that regard.

Second, in Mr. Egan's description of what may be contained in RFT 2, he said it was the inverse of the JobPath model. To me, what he described is what is happening in jobs clubs and local employment networks at the moment. Why are we going down this road? Why are we not ensuring and developing the local employment networks as they stand at the moment?

Has the Department has put a cost on losing 25 years of experience that most of those people working in this sector have, as well as the relationship with local employers which has been built up over those 25 years and which is critical to this process working? What value has the Department put on that? I would hope that value is far in excess of the €311 per employee Mr. Egan mentioned we are currently giving to the private sector.