Dublin South West Sinn Féin TD, Seán Crowe, has criticised the Government for wasting taxpayers’ money by handing millions of Euro over to private companies under the failed JobPath scheme and paying out €3,718 for a job that lasts over 12 months.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“Of the 190,000 people referred to JobPath so far, just 17,100 have found employment that has been sustained for one year. For every one of these new jobs, the Department have handed over €3,718 of taxpayers’ money to the JobPath providers Turas Nua and Seetec.

“In my opinion this is an enormous cost to find one person a job that will last for 12 months.

“There are five payments which form part of the JobPath service – an initial registration fee of €311 is paid by the Department to the private companies for every person who signs up with JobPath. That is a payment of €311 made for every one of the 190,000 people who have so far engaged with the service.

“We also know that up to 15,000 people have been referred to JobPath for a second time leading to a double payment so essentially the private companies are receiving two payments of €311 for every one of the 15,000 who have been referred again.

“The other four payments are known as job sustainment fees and are paid for every 13 weeks, 26 weeks, 39 weeks and 52 weeks of sustained employment at a rate of €613, €737, €892 and €1,165 respectively.

“The bottom line is that JobPath is not delivering with just 9% of those who have engaged with the scheme holding on to a job that has lasted for a year and at an enormous cost to the taxpayer of €3,718 per job.”

ENDS