Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The service has not been privatised, it has been sub-contracted in the same manner a large number of services in social protection offices across the country have been sub-contracted. Talk of privatisation is ill-informed.

The purpose of this scheme was to help people who were long-term unemployed get meaningful jobs and it is working. A total of 14% of the people who have gone to these people in the past 18 months now have work, whereas we targeted only 8%. There is nobody in terms of the long-term unemployed being hounded.

The survey was anonymous therefore there was nobody unwilling to put down something on a piece of paper with their name for fear, as the Deputy has incorrectly suggested, that they would be hounded. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is there to support people - we are concerned here with jobseekers - when they do not have work to get back into work. It is not to hound people but to help them, to activate them and to put them on the right path through training and support to make sure they are ready to go to work. It is working, 14% of the 120,000 people who have gone through the doors have got work and 81% have a satisfaction rating of very high.

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