John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I encourage the Minister to speak to the people who are on these schemes, rather than speaking to the private companies which are rolling them out, Turas Nua and Seetec. I note the Minister was in Wicklow speaking to one of those companies. That is exactly what I did in this report. I went out and gave those people a safe space to tell their stories, without the fear of having their payments stopped or curtailed. I was totally inundated. Thousands of people came forward and gave their experiences. It is not anecdotal evidence. What emerged was story after story of similar situations in which people felt they were threatened and they were held to ransom and in which they were worried sick that their payments would be curtailed. The Minister threw down a challenge to me that last time I questioned her on this matter. She said that if there was any evidence that Turas Nua or Seetec were engaging with short-term unemployed people, that would be a breach of its contract. The evidence is there. I have solid evidence that people are not being referred. In some cases people are being penalised by Intreo offices and are being sent over to JobPath providers as some form of a penalty. There are many cases where short-term unemployed people have been sent to Turas Nua and Seetec. The evidence is there. The Minister cannot deny it.

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