John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The emergence of JobPath signalled a drive towards a privatisation agenda within the Department for job activation schemes. Since 2011, penalties have been increasing year on year for those who do not engage in a job activation scheme. Between 2011 and 2016, more than 27,000 people were sanctioned. As the live register goes down, penalties go up. Is this a new policy within the Department?

Those engaged with JobPath cannot transfer to another scheme if they are offered a place, incur travel costs that are not reimbursed and are obliged to travel for up to 60 minutes to whatever job, and the Department's preference for JobPath is taking away from local employment services and CE schemes, which are suffering.

The priority for Turas Nua and Seetec is to make money. That is the bottom line. They do not care in what job they place a person; their objective is profit. Is it now a policy objective of the Department to give preference to JobPath ahead of all other schemes?

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