Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Is an instruction in place from the Minister's Department that requires mandatory placement of long-term unemployed individuals with private companies? Are they prevented from participating in CE schemes if suitable vacancies arise when they are engaging in JobPath? JobPath is nothing short of legalised bullying. It is time to stop that. If people want to move to CE schemes that are more advantageous, they should not be dumped into offices or put into one-to-one schemes where they learn nothing. It is time to call those boys off and terminate that contract. We might have been a party to bringing it in, but we should dump it now because it is nonsense. I am sick of it. The most complaints I, as my party's spokesperson on social welfare, received were about that scheme. The Minister would not believe how many complaints I received.

It has come to my attention that Intreo places greater emphasis on helping recipients into the JobPath programme, often without mentioning the potential of CE schemes for them. Is that a policy within the Department?

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