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

I too wish the Ceann Comhairle, all the staff and people who work here, especially the wonderful ushers, everyone here and their families a very happy Christmas and every good wish for the new year.

Two weeks ago, the Government supported a Sinn Féin motion calling on the Government to protect community, not-for-profit employment services and to suspend all plans for tendering out of the local employment services and job clubs. Several of the Tánaiste's Government colleagues in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have spoken out against the tendering process and in support of the local employment services and job clubs.

We had a motion passed unanimously in Cork City Council this week seeking the same thing. We had a report from the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands and from the Committee of Public Accounts, of which Government Deputies make up the majority. They concluded, the Committee of Public Accounts in particular, that JobPath has not delivered value for money for the taxpayer, and, with a 7% success rate, I do not think it has delivered for the jobseeker either.

If Government Deputies, councillors, the Committee of Public Accounts, the social protection committee, the workers and the unions are asking the Government not to go ahead with this tendering, why is it continuing to do so? It is also regrettable that the Government passed a motion in this House that it does not intend to do anything about.

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