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A DÁIL VOTE to end the referrals of jobseekers to the JobPath scheme has passed this afternoon by 81 votes to 42.
Opposition parties united to slam the government’s job activation programme, with a debate on the issue during the week hearing the scheme being dubbed “coercive” and “ruthless” by politicians.
Sinn Féin spokesperson for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, John Brady, who moved the motion, welcomed today’s vote stating that the onus was on the government to respect the will of the Dáil.
“Today the majority of the Dáil voted in support of the Sinn Féin motion to immediately stop referrals to Jobpath and to invest in schemes that work.
“It has cost the taxpayer millions and it has caused untold damage to existing community based schemes, including the Adult Guidance Service, the Local Employment Service, Community Employment and Job Clubs,” he said.
JobPath is an employment activation service provided to people who have been on the live register for more than 12 months and are trying to secure and sustain full-time paid employment or self-employment.
Private companies
The two private companies employed by the State, Turas Nua and Seetec, to operate the scheme have received €75.7 million and €73.3 million respectively to carry out its work.
The two contractors are paid to work with both the jobseeker and employers to identify employment opportunities.
They receive payments when someone who has taken part in the scheme gains proven employment.
Sustainment payments are also to be made to the companies over the course of a year in respect of each person who secures employment having engaged in the JobPath process.
TheJournal.ie revealed last year that the private companies contracted by the State to run the scheme are entitled to €3,718 for every jobseeker that gains sustained employment for one year through the JobPath scheme.
Those that refuse to engage with the scheme can have their social welfare reduced or cut off. In the last number of months, criticism has been levelled at the private companies that operate the scheme, with politicians highlighting a number of issues.
Unsuitable
Many personal testimonies of those on the scheme have been highlighted during debates and committee hearings on the scheme – with criticisms being levelled at programme for attempting to place people in unsuitable work placements.
Defending the government’s scheme this week, the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection Regina Doherty said approximately 41,000 individuals have found full-time jobs while engaged with the JobPath service – with a further 5,000 finding part-time jobs.
However, Fianna Fáil’s Lisa Chambers accused the minister of giving one angle, highlighting that only 9% have actually held a job for longer than 12 months.
Politicians have called for money to be invested in State schemes, that do not rely on the private sector.
https://www.facebook.com/MattieMcGrathTD/videos/2402066426494459/
Catherine Greene of the Kildare and Wicklow Education Training Board said organisations such as the one she works for, should have been tasked with the job that JobPath have been doing for the last number of years.
She told the committee it was “poor practice” to lift the JobPath model from the UK without making any changes or adaptations for working with the Irish public”.
She said the Job Path model was based on the model being used by the G4S recruitment company in the UK, which was criticised by the UK Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills.
“We have no difficulty with recruitment agencies as a model of accessing employment, but to use these services people must be highly skilled, workplace ready,” she said.
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This was truly an awfull scheme. I work with unemployed people who are with us on our Tidy Towns scheme. After a year working for their dole in the Community they were put in front of a computer all day looking at jobs. Jobs that they have no chance in getting as most of them has no skills and are too old to get employment.
It was a disgrace it was like that film, I am Daniel Blake,
That turas nua company have got 75 million and most of the guys came back to us after they were finished with them. We got them more jobs with our recommendations and contacts than turas nua ever did and we gave them skills too.
I would be glad to see the back of them
@bill clear: Another massive problem is a lot of people just could not survive on minimum wage. The government should put in place a work incentive programme for long term unemployed which gives them a percentage of the Employment Benefit payment tax free for at least two years to allow the ordinary person to get a couple of years experience and get back into the swing of working, it’s a big black rut being stuck on the dole, it’s very hard to have the wherewithal to pull yourself out of it!
@bill clear: to old to get a job?
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan:
Many people on Schemes are in their sixties and would find it difficult to get full time work especially in rural areas. Many work on Schemes to alleviate loneliness and isolation.
@bill clear:
Desperate waste of money. I worked for 15 years as a CE Supervisor and placed many people in full time good jobs by finding out what they wanted to work at and providing training that was relevant. All some of them needed was a bit of encouragement . Needless to say the Supervisors were paid no fee , it was just part of the job. I do not understand why these private companies were hired in the first place.
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: ageist is a big problem in Ireland.
Even people as young as 35 can experience it.
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: Too old to reskill for the types of jobs they were being “encouraged” to apply for more like – just for the sake of ticking a few boxes and with no consideration for anything or anyone else.
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: you seem somewhat puzzled at the notion that age isn’t a factor in obtaining employment. The truth is that individuals who are over the age of 55 have very little chance of gaining employment and those over 60 have a snowball’s chance in hell of obtaining employment.
@Aine O Connor: who owns the two companies and what relationship do they have with members of the government.
@Gerard Smith: I have no idea.
@Aine O Connor: look up Jeff Rudd and his political party United People. He’s been hacking away at the JobPath scheme since its inception.
If your life long occupation is construction based and there are no relevant jobs available, they push you to apply for low paying, no contract dead end jobs. There are no career development choices, no training, nothing.
@Jaci Black: if there’s no job prospects for your life occupation, you may want to find a new life occupation
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan:If you are a worker by nature, you want to work, however, Job Path push low level jobs in retail, hospitality, cleaning and customer service. ‘Fact’
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: What a Tool u are .. Was it bulders fault that Bankers runined the country, most of my friends who worked in Construction left the country, soem could not for various reasons, is that good enough for you. You will change your tune when yor job is replaced by AI or a robot
That was sum rip off for FGs friends working in Tusa nua – they literally chased down people a year or two from retirement. People who had worked all their lives and terrorized them.
Having private companies to operate a welfare scheme? Like it was ever going to work!
Like all the schemes in this country they don’t work and don’t benefit anyone. Ce schemes for example take real jobs away. Why not bring back jobs like caretakers , handy people , receptionists , administration support etc these jobs are now usually ce schemes or Tus schemes , instead of this being an actual full-time fully paid role ,
@Lynn:
Many of the jobs you describe are carried out by people on CE Schemes. Funding should be provided to the voluntary organizations who sponsor these schemes to progress these jobs to become part time or permanent . Instead when a person has been trained they have to leave as their time is up and another person has to be trained in their place.
@Aine O Connor: yes that’s what I meant. The CE schemes end and the person is back to square one after putting effort and time into that Job
Too many people on welfare long term who are able to work and contribute to society. Ireland has become a welfare state
@Regina Farrell: You made the exact same remark yesterday are you a bot or more likely to bone lazy to think anything through.
@Regina Farrell: A Corporate Welfare state. You just have a problem with people you consider “rats”.
@Regina Farrell: how much money do you think the government pays out to people in social welfare payments who are employed by companies on zero hour contracts or 2 days work a week? We are subsidising the proitability of companies and keeping people in poverty traps while doing so. Our government does not care about actually solving unemployment in a meaningful way and helping people find sustainable employment that pays enough to actually live on. It only cares about the optics of it. Your commentary is ignorant of the facts and ignorant of the challenges that most people face when they become unemployed. It would be interesting to understand if, by using private companies the government can circumvent closer public scrutiny of the spend and the services received for the spend.
@Regina Farrell: you’re right! A corporate welfare state!
@Regina Farrell: Suppose the billions of taxpayers money that was used to bail out the banks, Pay the bondholders with interest , Pay two companies millions to oversee the scam called job bridge .The recorded abuse of this system is yet to be published. Yes their will always be people who will abuse the system, but not a blip on the abuse by the banks, the government, heaped on the ordinary people of Ireland .
@Regina Farrell: Some people take advantage of the state true but most dot. How high and mighty you are but in the blink of an eye you might need that support.
Have the people running these so called companies made personal millions out of the misery of unemployed people and the taxpayer.
Gombeen nation in full motion.
after years in the retail sector at 50 I returned to education and completed a degree found a job which but for a few hours a month was full time.. da da.! guess what I was sent on job reach who could offer me nothing I hadn’t done myself. I was assigned a mentor who said they would help me find my hidden talents after explaining my circumstances the numpty still asked had i considered further education to help me. and then it appeared like a blinding light my hidden talent i could see a bunch of clowns no matter how they disguised them selves so thank you Tuas nua im in your debt ( I never went back ) my mentor is probably up the walls with worry…
UnitedPeople on the 17th of January in the Oireachats, gave its third annual report (after a thee year investigation) on the JobPath scheme. It presented sample 103 victim statements also in a single document alone. The gave in three. All specific detailed.
Short version: JobPath has been an utter expensive, abusive disaster from start to finish.
No amount of FG spinning will hide this.
It says it all when this week, Labour during a dail debate which we attended, also said the failed “experiment” must go as it was an utter disaster. Their words are important – as is was their very own previous party leader that rammed it down the throats of a nation.
For Labour then to call for it to go (maybe even criticising Mrs Burton for introducing it with FG), is a clear indication how really a disaster it was – and they could not but fail to recognise this too. It was so obvious.
€170+ Million for a success rate that is actually less than 7%.
People double and triple sent through it.
Attempted suicides on JobPath properties (we have the photos)
Assaults (we have the recordings)
People treated like dirt country-wide.
Alleged mass bullying/coercion.
The exporting of people’s data to a private company without their wishes.
The Dept’ of S.P. illegal stealing people’s money.
We could go on. We did on record in the Oireachtas.
JobPath is a future national inquiry in the making.
FF are they in or out?
@Dave.: Shaking it all about
Does anyone know what this means from today for people currently, unfortunately, on one of these schemes. For example, if you were in seetec and had an appointment tomorrow or next week and didn’t turn up, would they still have your payments reduced? Will they still be working come next week? Maybe I need to read it again but all I saw was that effective immediately they cannot recruit any new clients onto scheme but nothing about current clients, will those just recruited have to complete the year?
Should be no need for them now with full employment. Jobs going a begging. Anybody not working should be cut off unless there are other reasons why not working.
@John Deed: the benefits of working should far outweigh social welfare benefits, which they don’t. You can’t take any more off the welfare so the only other option is for wages to increase to a decent level. 12.50-13euro an hour minimum should be enough to entice people back to work.
@John Deed: So just to be clear, you’re suggesting we kill the unemployed for not working? Seems a bit harsh.
@John Deed: Cut off? Below the knee?
@John Deed: Those jobs are in Dublin. Half the population do not live there and couldn’t afford to anyway. Here in Donegal we want jobs but employers won’t come here.
@Hardly Normal: then we would become even more uncompetitive,and also the people who work above the lower wage will want a pay rise to make it worth there while to take on the responsibility……do you see where that idea is going.
@John: give it to them John, they’re most likely underpaid anyway! A yearly increase thereafter to keep up with inflation would be the way I’m thinking. I don’t know how they do it but Australia seem to control inflation and wages go up accordingly every year!
@John Deed: Their is work out there at minimum wage and zero hour contracts. Which pays way under the poverty line. So thats what you want people to do, is it.
A lot of things in Ireland are just copies from England
So FFG put an odd one through to give the impression of separate entities..
Absolute joke of a set up ….
No difficulty with recruitment agency’s ?? They are as bad,you don’t do the work, you get punished by not being offered anymore work,another 0 hour contract company’s ,anyway good news to see zeetec getting the boot,use the money for CE schemes to clean up the country,also get back to training our young to work.
If only 9% of 41000 people lasted more than a year in their jobs (approx 3700) and Seetec and Turas get paid €3780 for each position they fill that lasts more than one year, how did they receive €149m last year. Surely it should have been closer to approx €13m, and not over tenfold that, or am I totally missing something. Were they paid for 41,000 placements even though only 9% completed the year? Genuine question.
@Jim Byrne: Exact number was €3718 for every person.
For every PPP signature they got a 15% payment of the head price.
* For signatures alone, this meant they got over €65+ for signatures alone – not actual work done yet.
Because they needed signatures for money, alleged mass intimidation and bullying, threatening tactics ensued.
* Additionally, people have been shoved through JobPath two or three times so the companies again reaped rewards every time.
State agencies already set up, that could have been adapted, could have saved 60% to 70% of this mass money. Instead, FG saw to it, it all went to the private companies.
@Unitedpeople: Thanks for the clarification, much appreciated. The €149m still seems very high even allowing for the signing up fee of 15%. I’ll have a look at the Youtube link. There must be a call for this €149m to be audited, it should be brought up with the PAC. The logic behind using 2 UK private companies beggars belief when there are numerous existing state agencies that could take this on. Seetec UK is/was also allegedly a registered charity but does not appear on the Register of Charities. Somethings rotten here.
Jeff Rudd and others have worked tirelessly on this for the last couple of years.He spent literally hundreds of hours on it and should be credited. (He would be the last to seek said credit himself)
Fair play Jeff!!
It’s almost like the Gov are in a minority
We’re people on JobPath included on the live Register
@pat seery: no..
There’s opposition in the Dail?!
What ever happened to the schemes were folk were out cutting back ditches and clearing roads sweeping etc. Anytime I’d pass them by they always looked content in there work
I went to FAS in the noughties, not by choice, and was told they could put me on either a computer for beginners course or a hairdressers course. My info told them that I had taught computer for beginners (even to FAS staff) and in my fifties I was unlikely to have an interest in or the ability to start a career in something I had neither the talent or desire to do
So basically im still stuck on this scam? As in people currently on it? Will fully read after work
@No One Important: https://www.facebook.com/Jeffrudd31/posts/2355115474499139
@Unitedpeople: thank you
Jeff Rudd and others have worked tirelessly on this for the last couple of years, spending hundreds of hours on it and should be credited. (He’s the last person that would seek credit himself)
Fair play Jeff. Well done.
@Sam Glynn: im not sure, but i do know the contract runs out at the end of the year. Its possible they will let the contract play out until then and not renew it.
Can they cancel a contract just like that?
@Ybrik: thanks for the info. Didn’t know contract was due to run out anyway. I’d say your probably right in saying just letting contract play out till end of year. As much as I disagree with this happening. If it’s not fit for renewal and they had this motion of it today, surely, it just cease immediately. Will just have to wait and see what happens next…….
@pat seery. no that was the whole point of it.
@Michael Bardon: Thank you Michael that was my thinking all the time Now I know for sure
Delighted this happened pushing people into slave Labour for pittance.
Who’s ‘Dail’?
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