Ms Geraldine Hurley:

We all understand the potential fears. We are all out in society and receiving official letters that can lead to that reaction. I can send a copy of the letter to the clerk for the information of the committee. It was designed with a number of organisations and a lot of work went into it. This included the Irish Society for Autism and a range of other organisations. It was made very clear that it was a voluntary engagement and that the wording is that whatever you decide will not affect your social welfare payment, medical card or travel card. Every effort was made to make this as non-threatening as possible. Will we seek to improve that and refine it with the groups? Of course we will because now we have sent this out to 6,000 people. If there are other groups to consult with, we are happy to look at that too because what we really want is to promote our services to this group of people, and particularly young people. That was the other point; we wanted to make it friendly for younger people, and also for follow-up with phone calls. It was combined with a media campaign at the end of last year. I got some positive comments back on that campaign. Hopefully it removed some of the potential concerns people might have had when they got the letter. The wording is all to the effect that this is voluntary, we are offering you support and help. It is with a view to widening people's perspectives that they are a potential client of Intreo services and that they do not have to be looking for a job at this point in time but that it may be something they are looking at down the road. I appreciate the Senator's comments but it is something we are very conscious of and that we do everything to try to alleviate.

It is very good to hear positive comments about the service provided by EmployAbility in Kildare. I hear similar comments about services around the country too. There are 25 or 26 service providers currently providing the service. They are contracted by the State on an annual basis. It is true to say that plans are on the way to look at going out to the market and procuring the service. That is on the basis of advice we have received from the Chief State Solicitor's office saying that the current contractual arrangements are not in line with EU procurement rules and legislation. Officials have been visiting all contract providers since the start of the year to discuss with them what it might mean for them, how it will be arranged and how it will be organised and to make sure that they are fully aware of the process that will be undergone. Obviously, it will be subject to Government approval. We are at a very early stage of the process at the moment. I would say that a similar process was undertaken last year on the local employment service. We now have the local area employment services, LEAS, operating throughout the country under the new contractual arrangements following a competitive procurement exercise. Our experience was that it did not actually diminish the community-based element of that service and the service providers that are there. Obviously, I cannot say what the outcome of a competitive procurement will be but we are building on past experience.