Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Many of the questions I was going to ask have been asked. I will not repeat them but I endorse all the points made by my colleagues. There are two types of model here: one in which the focus is on getting number results to satisfy the Department and get paid; and one based on service. We need the latter. There is a cold chill going down a lot of people's backs with the fear that when the SICAP comes up for retendering a similar results-based approach will be taken. My experience of the JobPath programme over the last number of years has not been good. I am not blaming the providers because they just bake the cake according to the recipe. JobPath encouraged throughput, numbers and "results" but the problem with that is that people in such a system do not have the time to reach out to those who most need help. Instead, they reach out to the people who are going to give them the best results. That is inevitable in systems that become results driven. As I said, there is a big concern that this is the model being adopted by the State for the community and voluntary sector. It is not the one we were used to, that gives the best results, is most community friendly and reaches those who are hardest to reach in society. At the end of the day, reaching those people takes a lot of time but what is the point in helping people who probably would have sorted themselves out anyway at the exclusion of those who really need assistance? That is the nub of this issue.