Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 9, between lines 8 and 9, to insert the following:

“Report on the effectiveness of the JobPath scheme 18. The Minister shall prepare and lay a report before the Houses of the Oireachtas on the effectiveness of the JobPath scheme and the impact it is having on the sustainability of other job activation schemes and that the report shall be presented to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection within six months of the passing of this Act.”.

I am back to JobPath. I hope the Minister will at least consider this amendment. A number of Deputies from all parties have raised concerns about the amount of taxpayers' money being spent on JobPath. Last week and again during my Second Stage contribution today, I asked a number of questions on the referral fee. Every time a person is referred to Turas Nua or Seetec under JobPath, the company gets €311 once the person is signed up. In more than 33,000 cases, the same person has been referred twice. Is a payment of €311 made a second time? For the more than 1,300 people who have been referred a third time, is the referral fee paid a third time?

Now that the Government is extending JobPath for a further 12 months, is there a clause in the contract that allows the fees to be examined and reduced? The Minister has made reference to the fact that Turas Nua and Seetec are not private companies, but I do not mind what they are. My issue with JobPath, and what sets it apart from all other schemes, is the level of payments made to it – the referral fee and four other job sustainment fees, which start at €613 and grow to more than €1,100. That is what makes JobPath unique.

The second part of the amendment relates to the impact on other schemes. I do not know whether this point has been put to the Minister, but it has been put to me. Community employment, CE, schemes cannot fill their places. Referrals to the local employment service have fallen continuously because everyone is being pushed into JobPath. People can participate in Tús and CE schemes on the side, but they have to keep up with JobPath. If JobPath is so wonderful and great and people are happy on it, why can we not make the referrals no longer mandatory, let people who want to go on it go on it and let others do something else? CE schemes bring significant benefits to communities. Where people want to participate in a CE scheme, they should be allowed to. I do not see why we have to keep pushing JobPath and ramming it down people's necks. It takes a considerable amount of taxpayers' money. We need to examine this issue.

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