Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am certainly aware of allegations of cherry-picking but they do not stack up because it is my Department that decides who is referred to JobPath. This is very different to the model used in the UK, which has been much criticised and where cherry-picking was possible. We decide who is referred and we make sure it is a decent spread of people with different types of needs.

I do not really mind whether the service is provided by a private for-profit company, a private not-for-profit company or any other body. What I am interested in is value for the taxpayer and results for the people receiving the service. One of the advantages of Seetec and Turas Nua in respect of JobPath is that they covered all the set-up costs themselves. There would have been a considerable expense for the taxpayer had the Department had to set up all those offices around the country. Another advantage is payment by results. These companies are paid for the results they get whereas under different models, people are paid for the activity they do regardless of whether they get any results. There are pitfalls and perverse incentives in any system one uses. That is inevitable, which is why they need to be monitored closely. I do not think we will really know which model is the best for a number of years but I think we should continue to use both.

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