Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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1. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the assurances that can be provided that jobseekers who have been selected for the JobPath activation scheme will not be forced into unsuitable and inappropriate jobs given that participation on JobPath is mandatory; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18818/16]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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In tabling the question I wish to emphasise that we do not oppose the provision of programmes to help people to get back into work, but we are very concerned about any question or element of coercion into inappropriate or unsuitable employment, in particular now that the service has been privatised and there is a profit motive at the end of it. There are a number of problems with JobPath which I wish to bring to the attention of the Minister.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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JobPath is an activation service that supports long-term unemployed people and those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed to secure and sustain paid, suitable employment. Two companies, Turas Nua and Seetec, have been contracted to deliver JobPath services. The suitability of employment is a key factor in ensuring jobs are sustainable. If people are not placed in suitable jobs, they are less likely to remain in employment and the companies will get fewer fees. The fees are payable only in respect of sustained full-time employment.

All jobseekers are required to engage with the Department’s activation service, and this obligation applies irrespective of whether the service is provided by the Department’s own case officers or those employed by the local employment service or by JobPath.

The JobPath providers work closely with employers to provide them with the best possible candidates for available jobs. It is not in the interests of the JobPath providers to place unsuitable candidates into inappropriate jobs as that would have adverse effects on the provider’s ability to secure jobs for its other clients.

The JobPath providers are subject to regular on-site checks and inspections to ensure JobPath is delivered in accordance with contractual obligations. My Department is also commissioning a customer satisfaction survey to assess independently if customers are satisfied with the level and quality of service delivered by the contractors. Failure by the contractors to satisfy my Department’s inspectors or to achieve a satisfactory score in the independent survey will result in payment penalties being applied to them.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Out of all the queries, e-mails and personal visits I received on JobPath, I wish to read the Minister an excerpt from one e-mail which comes from someone in the Minister's constituency. I will be careful not to identify the person. The person said they will be 60 in a few weeks' time and they have been in full-time employment from 1976 until 2007 in a very responsible position.

Currently I am enrolled in the Seetec JobPath programme and I am finding the experience humiliating, extremely stressful and demoralising, as I am made to feel inferior and of little worth and even though I am engaging in every procedure that is required I am constantly being made to feel that I am going to be coerced into something, regardless of my experience. I look at the faces of people I meet in their 50s and 60s who have been told they have to learn how to use a computer, that are being intimidated into doing so, and they mirror exactly my feelings of stress and anxiety.

I could go on. The e-mail finishes in saying: "Please keep my identity secret because if Seetec [the contracting company] find out it was me who contacted you, I could not face any further hassle from them."

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I call on the Minister to make his final reply.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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That is pretty serious. Could I just make one very quick point? In my area in Limerick I have heard constant complaints from people who have been asked the most demeaning and inappropriate questions-----

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy should allow the Minister to reply.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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-----in the presence of other people. There is no privacy. People are sitting cheek by jowl with other people from the same city who are being asked the same questions and they can all hear the replies.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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To date, there have been either 28,000 or 50,000 referrals - I cannot remember the exact figure - to JobPath, which has been running for approximately a year. I am sure with any service there will be people with complaints or who have had a bad experience and I do not think they should be allowed to characterise the entire service, but I would encourage individuals who do have complaints about the way they were treated to make complaints to my Department.

It is important to point out that JobPath is not a work scheme. There is a misapprehension about that. Some people think it is a work scheme like JobBridge, Tús, Gateway, community employment, CE, or the rural social scheme, RSS. It is not. It is a recruitment service that tries to match jobseekers to real jobs. The initial results from it are very good but they are not ready to be published yet. It is important to point out that a jobseeker's allowance is conditional on a person seeking employment and being willing to take up employment. It is not the case that one can draw down the allowance every week and not take up employment. It is a requirement that one seeks a job and takes it up if one is offered one.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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The scheme is being operated by two companies. One of them is Turas Nua, which is a consortium of a recruitment company in Roscrea and a company called Working Links from the United Kingdom. Is the Minister aware that very serious allegations have been made about Working Links? For example, in an investigation by a parliamentary committee recently in connection with another company, A4e, a former senior financial manager of the company was interviewed who had previously worked for Working Links and he said he found there was "a prevailing culture of fraud" in Working Links, and when he made recommendations to tighten controls, he was effectively silenced and forced out. Is the Minister aware there have also been other allegations?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Yes, I am aware of allegations from reading newspaper reports from the UK. One will have allegations against the Department as well, never mind contractors. It is important to point out that there is a huge fundamental difference between what is being done in this country and what was done in the United Kingdom. None of the outsourced providers, whether they are local employment services or either of those companies, have the power to reduce or stop anyone's benefits, and that is a big difference in terms of what happened in the United Kingdom. The scheme is designed to match people with jobs and to support them to get a job and to stay in the job. The companies only get paid a fee if the person gets a job and stays in the job. It is a payment based on results. They cannot stop anyone's benefits or reduce anyone's benefits. Only the Department's Civil Service staff have that authority.