Mr. Oliver Egan:

I am conscious of what the Deputy said but we look at back to education as one of a range of programmes. We are conscious that in 2007 we had 8,000 on it and now we have 25,000 and escalating. The spend is approximately €200 million. Within the portfolio of the moneys we spend we are trying to see how to target this to get the best outcomes, bearing in mind that we have Momentum, internships and a range of other programmes that come into the same sphere. We are trying to fit in that overall context and working within the progression in terms of ensuring within the range of FETAC-type qualifications that progression route is there. The purpose of that review was to set out what our thinking in the Department of Social Protection was and then to engage with other partners to hear their views. That is what we were doing in February at our stakeholders' conference.

Over the next number of months we will engage in a more detailed way with a view to developing firmer policy precepts around that, and that process is ongoing. We will be engaging with the Department of Education and Skills and listening to its views and, again, trying to examine the totality of programmes available to people in a way that knits together in a sensible fashion and allows people clear routes of progression. One of the concerns we have primarily in back to education is the disappointing figures for return to the live register and we are trying to ask what that means for the scheme, whether we can do something to improve that and how we can work in that area. That is what we are trying to develop our thinking on.