Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Kerrane for bringing forward the motion and for all of the hard work she has done. I also want to put on the record the commitment and hard work of local job clubs and employment services. In my constituency, they are located in Lucan, Clondalkin, Rowlagh and Bawnogue . I have seen at first hand the dedicated work and valuable service they provide to my community.

I spoke to stakeholders this week and I share some of their concerns. They are concerned about the new for-profit employment service that is planned and the move away from a not for profit model. This has Fine Gael fingerprints all over it, again resorting to the private market to provide public services. This has failed miserably in respect of housing, water charges and bin collections, and will fail miserably with job activation models. The Minister of State mentioned JobPath. Some 400,000 people engaged with JobPath between 2015 and 2021, and only 26,000 found employment lasting over a year, at a cost of €275 million to the Exchequer.

The new model will also exclude people with low-paid jobs in activation training that allows them to upskill and a better life for themselves, something which has not been mentioned. We value the importance of not-for-profit community-based job activation programmes but because of the changes proposed, 40 job clubs could close their doors at the end of this month and 81 people could lose their jobs. That is not job activation.

My constituency office is based in an unemployment and training service on the Neilstown Road. I see the daily benefits of people accessing not for profit training and job activation supports. This is not a personal attack on anybody; rather, it is more of an ideological point. Fine Gael is deploying Margaret Thatcher's Tory politics of attacking our communities. Successive Government have deliberately eroded community development and attacked community resilience. This is yet another attempt to disempower our community.

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