Mr. Oliver Egan:

We are conscious that all schemes must have eligibility criteria of some sort to govern their fair administration, and we all accept that. The issue of the back to education scheme is the lock-in effect, and that is why I mentioned the figures in terms of the normal turnover in the labour market. One wants to design a programme that is most effective. We are conscious that if we put the intervention in too early the lock-in effect could go on for a number of years, increase the cost and distort the market. That is a complicated way of saying we want to ensure the people who use the programme can really benefit from it. Other people may have moved off the labour market already and have secured jobs. We do not want to put the appropriate package in too early.

As our service and the role of case officers is developing, we must evaluate this because we want the case officers to work with the clients in a way which gives them the intervention at the best possible time. In doing that, there will be an element of what is our role in the Department of Social Protection vis-à-vis the Department of Education and Skills. Our role is within the labour market, how that is performing, and to help people back into jobs. That is our primary concern. There will always be eligibility criteria. We need to work those out in terms of the lock-in effects and the labour market generally and how it integrates with the broader range of packages there. That will inevitably evolve, as the case officer role evolves, within the Intreo system.