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

I am aware that Pathways to Work is one of the centrepieces of Government policy. A European Commission report on the working of the system has been damning. It states:

Progress has not been sufficiently fast in light of the urgency and scale of the situation, however, and much more needs to be done...The pace of reforms and the resources mobilised, however, are at times insufficient given the scale and the urgency of the situation.

It goes on to refer to the lack of action and the possible outsourcing of some activation services, etc. It also adverts to the lack of attention paid to reskilling and training, particularly for the long-term unemployed and young people. What progress has been made since that report was published? What progress has been made specifically on outsourcing some of this work, as the Department and the programme for Government indicated would be done? I do not refer to outsourcing to local employment services or job clubs, but to the private sector. On 24 April the Minister told me in the House that this problem had been handed over to Computers in Education Society of Ireland, CESI, in November 2012 to give some advice on the matter. Has she heard back from CESI and what is the state of play on that issue?

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