Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I will return to the JobPath scheme in respect of which I have a number of questions. One of the key planks of the Pathways to Work strategy has been the roll-out of the Intreo offices, which I welcome. It is a good initiative. I have attended one, if not two, of the openings. It is a logical approach and one that should be taken in dole offices for many years but regrettably it was not.

Mr. McKeon announced another 14 Intreo offices are to open this year. How many more such Intreo offices have not been redesigned and the necessary staff upgraded to provide the services required in such an office? These services include some of the measures covered in the JobPath document, namely, group engagement, a case management approach and the proper focusing of jobseekers towards the services they need, be it education, if required, or jobs that are available.

Turning to a different issue, people will be aware of my criticism of JobBridge so I am not going to go into that in detail because there is a full committee here. However, I have problems with it, as do others. This morning Subway advertised for a sandwich artist under the JobBridge programme. Whether you agree or disagree with the JobBridge programme, these advertisements undermine and demean those who are working. There is no such thing as a sandwich artist. Someone putting a sandwich together in Subway will require a day or two of training - maybe a week. It does not take six months. This shows the need for a proper internship programme. This is free labour for companies and that is how they are using it in many instances. How can that be prevented?

In terms of the JobPath document itself, I have major concerns about this and I have raised them before. In the document, it states it is expected that some 100 job seekers per annum will be referred to this privatised system of ensuring that job seekers look for work. This is despite the fact that the Intreo office and the Department itself have been upgrading and retraining staff to ensure they can deliver virtually the exact same system. The JobPath programme is mainly aimed at the long-term unemployed. There was a problem there. In the introduction, it is stated that the number of long-term unemployed people had fallen to 200,000 in 2012 and is currently 150,000. If the trend continues - hopefully it will continue and jobs are being created - the need for the JobPath programme starts to disappear. There is within the Department at this stage - according to its own figures - 750 people who are capable of doing the case-working and so forth. Some 1,800 people were apparently needed in 2012. We might end up with a situation similar to Dublin City Council's contract concerning the incinerator. We might end up with the Department having to undermine its own service to provide the JobPath programme while the companies that will be running it with people who would be better served by Department officials cost-free, as these officials are already being paid .

My final question concerns cream-skimming and parking and so forth. When the British were preparing their equivalent to the JobPath programme, the exact same commitments were given to Westminster. Major fraud has been exposed in Britain. Reviews there have confirmed that despite representations that these practices could not and would not happen, they have happened. This criticism exists. How can we be sure that the same level of fraud - fabricating jobs that did not exist and getting money for placing people in employment or education which never happened - does not occur here? Also, most of the placements in Britain were for low paid and non-sustainable work. I welcome the fact that this programme has staged payments. I have severe concerns about the trend towards the privatisation of service rather than continuing the role of Intreo.