John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support the amendment. I spoke already this evening about the discrimination that is ingrained in the social protection system. This is a further discriminatory practice. I do not know any young people who are unemployed and who want to be on social welfare. They want to get work.

The former Minister for Social Protection spoke at a committee meeting about young people getting off planes from foreign countries. To paraphrase what he said, "How can they get off planes here and get work?" He was questioning what our young unemployed people in this State are doing. Unfortunately, that is the mentality we are dealing with here. Young people should be treated with equality. What is happening is totally wrong.

When the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection was questioned on this issue on Committee Stage, she said a report is being compiled and it is hoped that it will be forthcoming. Perhaps she is not aware that the report, which was compiled by NUI Maynooth, has been published. I think it was published in April. It is not acceptable for the Minister to say on Committee Stage that she is waiting for a report when it is ready for her to view.

The Minister also said a review of the cuts is being carried out by the Government and that it will be published in the next year. I tabled a question to the then Minister for Social Protection in May regarding the review and he said it was ongoing and he was hopeful that a report would be produced before the end of the year. We should have all of the information but, unfortunately, we do not. This is a continuation of a previous debate we had on discrimination against older people in which we were promised report after report but they were put on the long finger. It seems the work has been done on the report into the discrimination imposed on young jobseekers, which is compounding problems for them right across the board. Short of seeing the reports that have been compiled, it is critical to accept the amendment in order to put a timeframe on getting a report and seeing the impact of the discriminatory cuts that were imposed on young jobseekers.

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