Mr. James Doorley:

Yes.

I will make a few points in response to the comments made. With regard to our study, which Deputy Ryan mentioned as well, as a youth council the issue of JobBridge had arisen frequently and as Mr. Carroll said, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence but that is of little use. We wanted to do a study but we had limited resources. We could have approached the Department for funding but, first, it might not have given it to us and, second, it might be perceived as not being independent.

It is important to state that while 84 young people responded, seven of whom I met in a structured one-to-one interview, and the details of the methodology is contained in the full report, the issue was to try to get a snapshot because we wanted to get some evidence to bring to Mr. Carroll, his colleagues and others who are working in the area. Mr. Carroll put it correctly. The INDECON report is an excellent report. I have no queries about it but was it of its time? INDECON also mentions in its report that 72% of the people who were on JobBridge at that time and who participated in its survey had previous work experience. These were people who were primarily victims of the recession. That probably reflects the fact that young people have found it more difficult because many young people were coming out of education and training without work experience.

I would also make the point that self-selection might be part of the reason for the difference, as Deputy Ryan said. Some questions were raised about our study being self-selecting but, in fairness, the study INDECON did regarding their much larger numbers was also self-selecting because people were asked to participate and some people responded. Some did not, however, and it is important to put on the record that we accept that our report is small-scale. We just did not have the resources to do a big one.

I met with young people who had very good experiences but there were problems. Many young people were willing to put up with things for the six to nine months because they knew if they complained they may not get the reference to move on. That is the reality. Many people keep their heads down.

The cooling off period was mentioned by Senator Craughwell. As Mr. Carroll said, one is not allowed to recruit a new person to the same position for six months. Some of the people I met were very clear that there was abuse of that because some host organisations were changing the title of a position and were able to get around the six month period. It was not widespread but it was happening. I just wanted to make those final comments.