Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach said that "welfare cheats cheat us all" in a campaign now universally recognised as having been based on false figures which his own Department questioned. He cynically used public money to enhance his appeal to Fine Gael members. That campaign may now be largely forgotten but the agenda behind it remains. It was more than just a dog whistle campaign for votes. It was part of an ideological assault on social welfare. Under the guise of labour activation measures pushed by Fine Gael and Labour, unemployed people have been demonised, victimised and have had their social welfare cut, all in the service of constructing a republic of precarity which drives people into the kind of low-paid precarious work which has become widespread. One in four workers are now in part-time employment, 30% of workers are low-paid and 8% of workers have hours which change from week to week or from month to month. The result is a completely lack of stability and security and people being unable to plan their lives. They are existing instead of living.

The counterpart to that precarious employment is precarious unemployment in the JobPath machine. Some 140,000 unemployed people have been turned into opportunities for profit for private companies. In the process and without significant debate, the provision of social welfare has been partially privatised. I have spoken to a number of people who have been through JobPath. They say that they are not given any real training and they are just supervised while looking for jobs on a computer, which means that it is pointless travel for many. They describe it as demeaning, patronising and infantilising. The threat of having their social welfare cut by more than €40 hangs over all of their interactions with these private companies, which would leave people trying to survive on €150 or less a week.

Since JobPath was introduced, the number of people who have had these so-called penalty rates applied has increased from 5,000 in 2015 to 16,000 last year. That is in one year alone. Some 6,500 JobPath participants have had their dole cut. On the other hand, €84 million of public money has been paid to just two companies, SeeTec and Turas Nua. They get money each time someone signs a personal progression plan and they get paid job sustainment fees. Both SeeTec and Working Links, which is one of two companies behind Turas Nua, have been accused of fraud in the operation of similar schemes in Britain. Last October in the Dáil, Deputy Catherine Murphy raised a very serious case of fraud by SeeTec in Ireland.

All of that has been justified up until now on the false basis that the system works and gets people into employment. That has now been completely exposed by the Government's own figures which came out three weeks ago. Only 18% of those who engage in JobPath end up in full-time employment. Some €84 million has been given to these private companies to get people jobs which they would have got themselves. Will the Taoiseach now read the writing on the wall for JobPath? Will he agree that the scheme needs to be scrapped and that instead of handing money over to private companies, he should invest in proper education and training and in real jobs for unemployed people?

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