John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

TDs from across this Chamber voiced serious concerns and gave example after example of what exactly is happening within Turas Nua and Seetec. Certainly the evidence that was given in this Chamber was not anecdotal. I stated during that debate that TDs do not lie at home dreaming up these cases. These are real cases. TDs act as the eyes and ears of the public and those stories, which we raised, were brought to our attention. Therefore, they were certainly not anecdotal evidence.

During the debate the Minister put out the figure of 41,000 full-time jobs having been commenced through JobPath. Myself and other TDs questioned that figure and asked for a breakdown of those 41,000 so-called job starts. Correspondence the Minister has given me, which is quite startling, shows that only 11,334 jobs out of 206,000 were sustained in employment exceeding 12 months, yet she still stands over this having been the so-called most successive labour activation scheme in this State. How can she conclude that the programme has been successful given that not even close to half of those 41,000 full-time jobs have been sustained in employment for over a year? In terms of the democratic will of the Dáil, we have spoken and the Minister must listen to that and act on it.

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