Mr. John McKeon:

I can deal with those issues for the Deputy. First, we have a number of checks around people getting into employment. As well as our own checks in terms of commencement of employment notices from Revenue and so on, we ask the JobPath providers to get a signed note from the employer.

It is a belt and braces check and I suspect that is where the first issue is arising.

On the part-time employment aspect, under the legislation people who are in part-time employment receive a casual jobseeker payment on the basis that they are looking for full-time employment. They are within the scope. If one has been working casually or part-time for a long period of time, more than 12 months, one is long-term unemployed under our definition and we want to help the person to get a full-time job if that is what the person is trying to do. If the person is not trying to get a full-time job that is perfectly fine, but one is not entitled to a payment. That is where it comes from. That is the law and we must apply it.

If there are other issues, and I do not wish to take up the Deputy's time, we carry out audits of the JobPath providers. We also carry out customer satisfaction research. Our payments are based on the providers meeting minimum standards in those audits. I am interested to hear of any bad examples because it will help us-----