Mr. Gabriel Kearney:

As a sponsor, I have said previously that we have to get the supervisors of the schemes talking to the Department because if that does not happen, we are just going around in circles. These guys are on the ground and they know how the schemes work. As the Senator said, they nurture people with low confidence. Nobody wants to be unemployed. There may be a cohort of people who find it difficult but nobody wants to be without work. We need work for our mental and physical health. The supervisors are on the ground and they know the people. They nurture them. As a sponsor looking on, I can see that they are hitting a stone wall in the Department because they are viewed as not being part of the Department but as supervisors in private companies. That is not the real position. The schemes are set up that way to protect the Department but that is not doing anything for society or for the participants.