John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is certainly not rocket science and I do not take the Minister's condescending remark lightly. However, it is interesting to see the emergence of the privatisation of this area. At the same time as the Minister has been cutting referrals to the LES across the State, more than 60,000 people have been referred to private entities in JobPath. Is the real reason behind the huge cuts in referrals to provide a private service instead of the local employment service, which has been doing exceptional work? In the Pathways to Work 2016-2020 strategy the Minister committed to undertake a review of the LES to assess the services' performance and value for money by the end of 2016. Where is that review? I have not seen it. If a review has been carried out, and I seriously doubt it, has that fed into the Minister's decision making or is this just an ideological position essentially to privatise this service? The latter point is the crux of this question. Where is the review and will the Minister publish its findings?

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