Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent)
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I have a few questions. I would like to pick up on what Deputy Joan Collins said about Intreo offices. Could I have an outline of where these Intreo offices are geographically located throughout the country? Where will the new offices that were mentioned by Deputy Ó Snodaigh be located? How many of them have been upgraded? How many of them need to be upgraded? I am looking for information on the geography of that.

One of the officials spoke about the measurement and publication of performance statistics within the Intreo offices. They have been up and running since 2011 or 2012. There must be some kind of measurement and publication. We are lacking a certain measurement and publication of statistics. We need to know what is working and what is not working.

I would like to know how much progress has been made with the Gateway programme. Where has that moved? Has definable progress been made on it? I have similar questions about the Youth Guarantee and internships. The lack of imagination with regard to internships is a particular bugbear of mine. Quite rightly, there are many references throughout the document to one-to-one communication, personal advisers, literacy and numeracy, education and the development of curricula vitae. When all that is done, the big problem is finding actual jobs for that development. I do not think enough attention is paid to the Gateway programme and internships.

Every week, the clerk to the joint committee, Tom Sheridan, asks some fine questions about much of the information that comes in. He has raised questions about schemes like JobsPlus, Tús, Gateway, JobBridge and MOMENTUM. What are the demands for the various programmes? I do not know which one is working and which one is not working, or which one is more effective and which one is less effective. Is there one programme with which more progress needs to be made? Is there one programme from which we need to learn? I would like the officials to speak about the effectiveness of these programmes. We are not getting any concrete information. I welcome the extraordinary pathway the Department has created. It has been an extraordinary development for the long-term unemployed and those furthest from the live register. I say that with no churlishness. I want to find a bit more effectiveness. I am looking for statistics about outcomes. How does the Department intend to move forward? The officials might be able to answer some of my generalised questions.