Paul Murphy criticised the government's new Work Placement Experience Programme as 'JobBridge 2.0', saying it offers lower pay than the PUP and risks leaving participants below the poverty line. He argued the scheme amounts to a free labour scheme for employers and accused the government of ignoring key recommendations from the Indicon report.
Main accusation
Paul Murphy described the Work Placement Experience Programme as a repeat of JobBridge, saying workers will get an extra 3.43 an hour while working 30 hours a week for six months without a guaranteed job at the end. He warned the scheme will allow bosses to have up to 10 workers without paying a single cent and actively discourage the creation of real jobs.
Indicon report concerns
Murphy noted that when JobBridge was abolished an Indicon report made 10 proposals for any replacement scheme, and asserted the government ignored seven of those recommendations. He questioned the point of commissioning reviews if their proposals are not followed.
Questions on outsourcing and Pathways to Work
He raised concerns about policing and case management, asking whether the new caseworkers will be outsourced, given the Pathways to Work strategy references expanding private, contracted companies in handling cases such as CTEC and Tourism. The question was directed to the Taoiseach in the debate.
Government response and debate outcome
The Taoiseach disagreed with Murphy's analysis, defended the activation programmes and the Pathways to Work strategy as significant, well resourced and voluntary, and said such schemes had produced real-life examples of participants finding jobs or starting businesses. Murphy and others said the Taoiseach did not answer all posed questions and the exchange ended as time ran out.
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Thanks, Ken Corlea. Teachta, yesterday your government unveiled the so-called Work Placement Experience Programme. It's a new free labour scheme for bosses, where workers will be getting less than the PUP, expected to live below the poverty line while working. Put simply, it's JobBridge 2.0. Workers on the scheme will get an extra 3.43 an hour, working 30 hours a week for six months without a guaranteed job at the end of it. Bosses can have up to 10 workers on this scheme without paying a single cent, actively discouraging the creation of real jobs. When JobBridge was abolished, the Indicon report commissioned by the government made 10 proposals for any replacement scheme. Of those 10, the government has ignored 7. Teesach, what's the point in commissioning the reports if you're just going to ignore them? Finally, Teesach, you say that the new scheme will be policed by new caseworkers, while the Pathways to Work strategy talks about expanding the role of private, contracted companies in handling cases like CTEC and Tourism. Will these case officers be outsourced in JobBridge 2.0? Teesach? First of all, I would disagree with the deputy's analysis and simply say this, that the activation programs and the Pathway to Work program that was launched yesterday are very significant, very well resourced and supported financially by government. With one objective, to facilitate work and working opportunities for people and specifically for younger people to reduce the numbers of people in long-term unemployment and above all to reduce the percentage of people in youth unemployment. And activation is important and previous experience shows that it works. And these work experience programs where the rate will be much higher than anything before and which is voluntary. People engage in these schemes in a voluntary capacity. What we saw yesterday was real life examples of people who had participated in programs such as this, who not only got jobs, but in some instances went on to found their own businesses and become job creators themselves. We come from a different world and you look at it through a parallel universe. To be fair you have a different perspective. Thank you very much Teesach, the time is up. I happen to think the activation program would work and I believe in it. Deputy Michael Lowry on behalf of the regional group. Sorry. Teesach didn't answer any of the questions that were posed. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Just write to me if you're not happy.
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