John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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50. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she has read Sinn Féin’s report on JobPath as issued to her; her views on the report's findings; the actions she will take as a result of the report's findings; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46920/17]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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Before the recess, Sinn Féin launched a report into JobPath and sent it to the Minister. I have a copy here. Has the Minister received it? Has she looked through it? What are her thoughts on the report and, more importantly, what actions will she take in light of its content?

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Yes, I did receive the Deputy's report. He is referring to a 22 page dossier of anecdotes. He has a copy of it, as do I. If he would like to refer to specifics within it I would welcome that, because this is something like the fifth time I have asked him for specifics. If I have specifics I can do something about them. Anecdotes are only sweeping statements which serve no purpose but to diminish a programme which has provided a huge and valuable service to 125,000 people in the last 18 months. There is no analysis in the report. There is no attempt at constructive critique. There is no structured or coherent set of recommendations arising from what the Deputy feels is happening on the ground. There are no suggestions as to how we should best engage with people who are long-term unemployed.

I have repeatedly explained to the Deputy that the only aim of my Department and its officials is to provide the best level of service to those people who need support for periods of their lives, whether they are periods of job seeking or caring or whatever. If the Deputy has specific reasons to believe there is a problem he should bring them to us. We will raise them specifically with the providers of JobPath and we will uncover whatever it is that the Deputy believes is going on. The problem I have is that every time I go to see these providers, or engage with them on behalf of my constituents - the Deputy will be aware I was in his constituency yesterday and visited the providers there - I see a level of excellence and a commitment and ambition to help people who are long-term unemployed, to develop relationships, to remove any anxiety or confidence barriers which they might have and which might prevent them from joining the workforce. I see a committed relationship which builds up over weekly and bi-weekly contacts with these people which support them in returning to the workplace.

A couple of weeks ago when I was before the House I said that it is the most successful programme which has ever been run by this Department in attempting to provide employment services for people. The reason it is so successful is that it is people-centred. The relationships which people who are out of work build with the employment advisers are crucial to rebuilding their confidence and helping them get back into employment. That relationship is so crucial that it continues even when somebody gets a job. The service provider in that JobPath office continues to call the person on a weekly and monthly basis for 12 months afterwards. That is commitment to the people. That is ensuring that we provide a valuable service.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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I encourage the Minister to speak to the people who are on these schemes, rather than speaking to the private companies which are rolling them out, Turas Nua and Seetec. I note the Minister was in Wicklow speaking to one of those companies. That is exactly what I did in this report. I went out and gave those people a safe space to tell their stories, without the fear of having their payments stopped or curtailed. I was totally inundated. Thousands of people came forward and gave their experiences. It is not anecdotal evidence. What emerged was story after story of similar situations in which people felt they were threatened and they were held to ransom and in which they were worried sick that their payments would be curtailed. The Minister threw down a challenge to me that last time I questioned her on this matter. She said that if there was any evidence that Turas Nua or Seetec were engaging with short-term unemployed people, that would be a breach of its contract. The evidence is there. I have solid evidence that people are not being referred. In some cases people are being penalised by Intreo offices and are being sent over to JobPath providers as some form of a penalty. There are many cases where short-term unemployed people have been sent to Turas Nua and Seetec. The evidence is there. The Minister cannot deny it.

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I do not want to labour the point, but I hope it is clear at this stage that the 22 page report which the Deputy sent me does not have a single fact in it. It does not send me anywhere. It does not say that I need to go to the office in Ballycumber because there was a particular instance there with a Mrs. Murphy. If the Deputy did not want to name names he could have privately given me the examples of, I believe he said, the thousands of people who shared reports with him. I am sorry to say that I do not believe that he has any evidence because if he had he would have already given it to me. Listen to the language the Deputy has just used. He has said that people are being "penalised" in being sent to a service which is there to help them get work. What is wrong with the Deputy? This is probably one of the most efficient and effective tools which we have ever had to help people get work. Some 124,000 people have been through the doors of Turas Nua and Seetec in the last 18 months. To challenge the Deputy, I did not go to meet the staff in Turas Nua yesterday, I actually went to meet the clients. I sat down with a number of clients and some of them had genuine observations to make to me, which will make the service better, but not one of them had a criticism: not one.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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In making personal attacks on me, the Minister is attacking the hundreds and thousands of people who took part in this report.

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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No, I am not.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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They are not individual one-off cases. There is a pattern in Turas Nua and Seetec right across the board and right across the State. These two companies are operating totally outside of their contracts. The Minister has not addressed that point, which is the core point. This JobPath scheme was set up to engage long-term unemployed people and it has deviated away from that completely. There are people engaged who are short-term unemployed for weeks and, in some cases, days. I will certainly give the Minister the evidence. In attacking me, she is attacking the people who are being threatened, bullied and intimidated by the threat of having their payments stopped.

It is not just participants. Former personal advisers have also been in touch with me. They have questioned the whole concept. They have said that the main objective when someone comes through the doors is not to let him or her outside until he or she has signed the contract. The service providers' main goal is to get these people to sign the contract because that is when the payments start flowing to them. There are serious issues here. The Minister said that if there was evidence that the providers are working outside their contracts she would act. Rather than calling me a liar in the Chamber, in light of the evidence which I have amassed over the last three months, I challenge the Minister to deal with the issues. They are not one-offs. They are not individual cases. They are systemic right across the board in Turas Nua and Seetec.

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I certainly would not call anybody in this Chamber a liar. I will put it on record again that if the Deputy has evidence I ask him please to bring it to me. I am the Minister for nearly five months and we have been having this conversation for all that time. Without such evidence, all I have is the evidence of the 124,000 people who have been helped and aided and the 126 people in the office in the Deputy's home town of Bray who have received new work in the last month because of their interactions with Turas Nua. These people are committed to helping find jobs and employment for people who are long-term unemployed.

In case the Deputy or anyone listening does not know, that means a period of over 12 months. It does not apply to people who have been unemployed for a number of weeks or months-----

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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So there are no cases-----

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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It is over 12 months. The Deputy keeps saying to everybody, inside and outside the Houses, that people are being grabbed off the street having lost their jobs only weeks previously. He should give me the evidence. If he gives me the evidence, I will be able to consider credibly what he keeps talking about. He has not provided the evidence to date, however.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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Deputy Doherty is the Minister. Has she spoken to them?

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I am not the one making the allegations; the Deputy is.