Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 12 November 2020
Public Accounts Committee
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 – Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 4 – Control over Welfare Payments
11:30 am
Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Specifically, is it the same individual in the Department who decides whether I go to JobPath or the local employment service? What are the criteria? I know Mr. McKeon has said it is random but surely there should be some sort of criteria internally, I hope there is, to decide how many people go to one or the other. The reason I ask is because there is obviously a cost. The State is paying for JobPath and, therefore, I presume the Department needs to keep the figures up. Is it true there is a penalty clause if there are not enough clients coming to JobPath? Is there a penalty for the State and the Exchequer if this is the case? Surely with the local employment service there is no such thing. What is the cost the Department faces if a certain number of jobseekers are not referred to JobPath?