Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like many people, I am ideologically opposed to the outsourcing and privatisation of social protection services. Evidence from overseas suggests that this has been an expensive failure in other states. For those who are furthest from the labour market and for existing not-for-profit activation infrastructure, it has been a disaster. I am requesting, for a number of reasons, that the Minister halt the tendering process. In the time allotted to me now, I will focus on the impact on the existing community-based activation infrastructure.

Is the Minister aware of concerns to the effect that local development companies, the LES, the partnerships and jobs clubs, all of which have a community focus and a social ethos, will be forced to compete against both each other and multinational companies? Is she further aware of fears that they will be obliged to become subcontractors to those profit-focused multinational companies or face extinction? The Minister has claimed, and has just reiterated, that her intention is for JobPath to complement existing services. However, she failed to outline clearly her intentions regarding the future role of those services once JobPath is established and begins to deal with the same client base as that allocated to the LES at present. That would be both a contradiction and a duplication. Will the Minister address the concerns of those who operate the services to which I refer?

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