Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies Mythen, Patricia Ryan, Gould and Clarke. I know a little more than most about this subject. I was on the national executive of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed many years ago when these job clubs and local employment services were being put together. We were part of the team that worked around a community based response, working with people who were unemployed to put together tailor-made training programmes to help them get back into the world of work. This is good for unemployed people and good for businesses, which get workers who are fitted and want to stay in that career path down the line. This makes sense from every perspective. The importance of the motion of my colleague, Deputy Kerrane, is that it is about community working together. I will tell the story of our local job club in Buncrana. It is 20 years in place. In all of those years I have been a public representative and not once have I had a complaint about that service from people who are unemployed or from businesses. It was a tremendous service that is serving our community for 20 years, a whole generation. When it comes to JobPath and the Tory, right wing privatisation model, I could not tell the number of people in the community sector who are unemployed and have had a terrible, demeaning, dehumanising experience within that Tory model.

Does the Minister know what she sounded like when she was speaking earlier? She sounded like Margaret Thatcher. The lady is not for turning. This is right wing, anti-community politics dressed somehow as prudence. It is not. It is anti-community. The Government is dismantling services that work for unemployed people, businesses and communities. For that reason, I say shame on the Minister if she is not going to reverse that position.

See this speech in context