Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Kerrane for bringing this motion forward. It is fantastic work. The Government thinks it has a Midas touch where it can turn everything into a money-making opportunity for its friends and squeeze a profit out of issues such as homelessness, the health crisis and asylum seekers. Society is not supposed to turn monetary profit. It is supposed to support social goals like low crime rates, support the vulnerable, especially our older people although that is for another day's work, and the provision of vital community services. One such vital service is the local community employment service. It provides an excellent service on a local level and has a supportive and sympathetic approach, unlike the suspicion that the likes of the disastrous JobPath scheme encourages, a scheme which has cost close to €300 million since 2015. If only local employment services could get similar funding. Of the almost 400,000 people referred to JobPath since July 2015, just over 26,000 found employment which lasted for at least 52 weeks. That is a success rate to date of 7%. Privatisation is not working. Commodification of local employment services will not work. Sinn Féin remains strongly opposed to the Government's most recent move to commercialise those seeking employment, which would put profit margins ahead of the needs of ordinary people. Private companies receiving bonuses to tick a box when someone gets a job - any job - leads to poor outcomes for jobseekers. Some 40 job clubs will close their doors at the end of next month and 81 people will lose their jobs. This cannot be allowed to happen. The Minister can be sure that we in Sinn Féin will continue to stand against a harmful model of private employment services that this Government has put forward. Now more than ever, our employment services are not for sale and our communities are not either. I will finish on this.

Athy, Newbridge and Kildare town, all in County Kildare, and Portarlington, County Laois, are in my constituency. Their job clubs will be closed.

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