Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I had a particular instance where I was contacted by a young woman who went for a job after having been unemployed for 20 months. She was asked whether she could avail of the JobsPlus scheme. She is a lone parent and could not avail of the scheme, and somebody else on the scheme got the job. I presume this would also be the case for somebody applying for a job who had become unemployed two weeks previously. Is this an incentive for employers to choose people on the JobsPlus scheme rather than other unemployed people?

I am always a bit nervous of job initiatives. What specific work are we speaking about in local authorities? Is it at CA or CO level or are jobs throughout the organisation offered? I know there is an embargo but this shows the madness of Government policy. Anybody would want to wake up in the morning to go into a real job and get paid. Under the scheme a 21 year old in receipt of a €100 jobseekers' payment and an extra €20 a week will work 19.5 hours at €6 an hour. This is an insult. I am not referring personally to the witnesses, but the policy is an insult to people. If it is a real job, one should be paid equal pay for equal work of equal value. This is my history in the workplace.

When people go onto these schemes, are they officially taken off the live register? Does it mean there are 3,000 fewer people on the live register? I must question the type of work and the jobs they do.

On the mortgage interest supplement scheme, this initiative was introduced to assist people on short-term sick leave from work. It is now being used to assist people who have lost their jobs. I do not understand the reason this initiative does not automatically kick in when a person engages with his or her mortgage lender to sort out mortgage difficulties. Currently, this only happens after 12 months, which is a huge imposition on people in difficult situations. The scheme is important in terms of assisting people during periods of distress.