Ms Lynn Coffey:

I thank the Chairman and members. Fórsa welcomes the opportunity to address the committee. Members will have seen Fórsa's submission on the public employment services. More than 400 workers are employed in local employment services and jobs clubs throughout the country. As with most community services, Fórsa and SIPTU trade unions have dual representation rights across the sector. The unions have agreed to write individual submissions in an effort to impress upon the committee the grave concerns of our members about the proposed changes in the way the future contracts for service providers take place, without any interventions from all relevant stakeholders. The specific issue is the proposals that the services of public employment services are to be issued through the RFT 2 process.

At present, there are three models in the provision of public employment services in Ireland.

These include the Intreo services, provided by direct employees of the Department of Social Protection and JobPath, provided by two private for-profit companies, Seetec and Turas Nua. In April 2019, the Dáil voted by a margin of 81 to 42 to close this model. It has been extended twice but is due to close at the end of 2021. The third model is a social model comprising the local employment service and jobs clubs. There are approximately 23 local employment services across 82 locations and 40 jobs club throughout Ireland. These are all not-for-profit companies, the majority of which have charitable status.

The existing not-for-profit organisations have provided these services to people within our communities who, for one reason or another, find that they need assistance to engage with employment, either for the first time or when they seek to return to the workforce following a prolonged absence. They provide a wrap-around service designed to assist in every way they can. Their objective is to help people to become job-ready so that there are no cultural, psychological, physical or emotional barriers preventing them from entering the workplace. These organisations support people who are on the live register in addition to providing support to anyone in the community placed furthest away from the labour market. Our members have been providing these services to the most vulnerable in our communities for over 25 years and they have been doing it well. The social model that characterises these services does not require them to turn service users into a commodity to ensure profit margins. The not-for-profit approach allows them to measure their success in terms of meaningful outcomes for service users. That is the model we are seeking to protect because it is the one that works.

Reports cited in the Fórsa submission refer to for-profit models used in the UK and elsewhere which are characterised by lesser terms and conditions for the staff who provide the service. This has the effect of downgrading the services provided by applying pressure on the inexperienced, low-skilled staff to get results, no matter what the outcome. We have seen this happen in Ireland previously with JobPath. At that time, the trade unions opposed its for-profit, payment-by-result model for the provision of public employment services.

Fórsa and SIPTU represent a wide range of sectors in communities. Both unions have consistently highlighted the hazards of putting our community and social services into a for-profit model. Turning the services and service users into a commodity has been proven, time and again, to be simply unworkable. Our message to the committee today is that we must put the service users first, particularly at this time when the pandemic has inflicted so much damage on the labour market, as the Chairman alluded to in his opening statement.

As stated by my colleague, what we are seeking from this committee is that due consideration be given to our statements and the proposed tendering process paused. Without a predetermined outcome, we are asking the Department to engage in a meaningful and inclusive way with representatives from the service providers, the service users, the employee representatives and academic experts and that this is done with an ethos consistent with the social platform.