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

Mr. John McKeon:

It has because we have reduced referrals. We had started thinking about whether we would extend the JobPath contract. I do not believe it was ever an option not to have it burst capacity but it was a question of whether we would continue with the existing model and contract set-up. Obviously, in light of the developments this year, we need to extend the scheme, but the number of referrals had reduced because the number of long-term unemployed was falling. As I said before, we are maintaining our referrals to the local employment services. As the number of people who need to be referred drops, that comes out of the JobPath share.