Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In announcing the scheme, Government set out a number of objectives. One objective is that 75,000 persons would be taken off the live register during the lifetime of the Government and that the average waiting time on the live register would be reduced from 21 to 12 months. What progress has been made to date on these objectives and how optimistic is the Minister that they will be realised?

From what we were told on the last occasion, I realise that the outsourcing of some of this work to private contractors was happening to some extent even before the Government announcement. The Minister then stated that the Government was studying how to go about further outsourcing. What is the position in that regard?

Finally, one can take a person off the live register, not only to get a job but to be re-educated or re-skilled. Much of this re-education and re-skilling would take place in the fourth-level education sector where funding has been cut back and pupil-teacher ratios have increased. How does that gel with the Government's objectives in Pathways to Work?

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