Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We got it down to €226 million, and they are very difficult decisions. Everything in social welfare affects an individual, a family or a community. However, on balance, I believe we have a budget that strongly supports people to get back to work.

I listened with interest to the contribution by the Sinn Féin Senator. When I last checked, Sinn Féin has been in government in Northern Ireland for a long period of time and the payment to young people of the ages we are discussing is the princely sum of £57 per week, which is equivalent to approximately €67 per week. It is not that Sinn Féin does not care about young people in the North, or perhaps I do not know, but it has been in government for a significant period of time yet it has chosen not to prioritise social welfare payments in the North. However, it believes it can be freely critical about a much more generous and supportive payment system in the Republic.

We are transforming our social welfare system, but we are doing it in a way that is appropriate to Ireland. I have seen some of the changes that are being introduced in the North and in the United Kingdom and I would not be a fan of many of them. While Sinn Féin is very critical, which is fair enough, of everything Governments in the South have done, in the North it has not allocated any priority to the payment levels that are significantly below what is available here. It has a significant problem in the North, particularly with young men in both communities who leave school early and receive totally inadequate training opportunities. I am happy to listen to people's ideas but our intention here is to enormously enhance the training in work experience for young people. I taught young people at third level for a long time. People are emerging from that level with fantastic qualifications, but if they have no work experience their chances of getting a job when they go to a job interview are much reduced. We must shift the balance of our system to helping young people into education, training and ultimately into work, where they can become financially independent.