Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is okay. I agree with you. Last June or July, the Minister said he was going to refer 60,000 unemployed people to private operators under the JobPath scheme, to take the people off the live register and make the numbers look good. We need a proper examination of this.

I have encountered cases where people more than 60 years old, who are waiting for hip operations, are being sent to sit in front of a computer 20 miles away simply to take them off the live register. What is happening here is a scandal. We must have our questions answered. I do not wish to see it become the subject of another "Prime Time Investigates" programme. We should not have to depend on RTE making investigative programmes to bring these matters forward and to be able to question and answer honestly.

If the JobPath scheme has not worked and if we have paid out huge amounts of money to private providers and entangled ourselves in contracts we should not have entered, we must come clean with the people, particularly the people who are not allowed on community employment schemes because they are already committed to JobPath and are ordered miles across rural areas to attend stupid courses that are of no relevance to them. I look forward to seeing the Minister in the House within the next seven days.