Galway TD Seán Canney has questioned whether the taxpayer is getting value for money out of the JobPath programme, on which a quarter of a billion has been spent.
More than €250 million has been spent on the JobPath programme since its inception in 2015, Deputy Canney said he has been informed by the Department of Social Protection.
JobPath is a privately administered scheme which is meant to help people who are long term unemployed to get back into the jobs market.
Jobseekers are referred to the programme, and assigned a personal adviser who will provide them with employment advice over a 12 month period.
“Jobpath providers are paid a fee for this service and over €250 Million has been paid out between 2015 and 2020 in figures I received from the Department of Social Protection”.
“This is a very high expenditure with €71.7 million being paid out in 2018,” Seán Canney said.
Deputy Canney questioned whether or not the country is getting “value for money” out of the programme, as well as if JopPath as a whole is a “box ticking” exercise for people.
“I fail to see why we have to spend so much on jobpath when this money could be better spent on incentivising employers to take on jobseekers and providing additional tax credits to jobseekers who are successful in getting employment”.
“We need to continue to review this level of expenditure and ensure value for money at all times”.
It was also reported by RTÉ last December that the Department itself has clashed with the private companies which administer the programme, Seetec and Turas Nua.
Internal documents seen by RTÉ Investigates showed that the two companied often exceeded the contractual ratio of clients to advisers they were to adhere to in order to ensure people got enough individual time with their advisers.
