Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will be as brief as I can. I welcome the recently announced decrease in the number of people on the live register. While live register figures are a million miles from what we would wish them to be, this is a step in the right direction. As stated by Deputy O'Dea, data in respect of self-employed people is not recorded because they do not receive payments as they do not have access to credits. I have raised on a number occasions with Ms Faughnan the issue of self-employed people having access to credits, which are vital for pension purposes. Perhaps it will be addressed in the report on the self-employed which we are awaiting. I ask Ms Faughnan to ensure it is.

The figures in respect of uptake on JobBridge were provided last week. However, we did not get information on the success rate of that initiative in terms of how many participants thereon moved on to full employment. I would be interested in hearing those figures if Ms Faughnan has them with her today. The last thing we need is for employers to be repeatedly taking on people from JobBridge and not creating employment.

On JobsPlus, can employers who receive money under this scheme from the Department of Social Protection let a person go after two years or are they required to keep that employee full-time for a number of years? On the Gateway initiatives, I was under the impression that these new schemes related to new jobs created rather than replacement of former employees. It was stated earlier that this relates to work which the councils cannot cater for owing to a lack of employees. I understood it to relate to work on festivals and so on. I would be concerned if employees under this initiative were displacing other employees.

It was stated that those eligible to apply are persons aged under 25 years who have been unemployed for 24 months, which is a long time for a young person to be unemployed. Perhaps a period of 12 months unemployment rather than 24 months should apply. As stated by Deputy Collins, €120 per week is very little. It is actually cheap labour for a person working 19.5 hours. Perhaps Ms Faughnan would comment on that issue.

It was stated that 25% of unemployed people would get jobs in Irish Water. While people have approached the Department of Social Protection for information on how to access these jobs it has not been provided. The Department does not even know to whom they should refer these people, which is an indictment of that Department. Will recruitment by Irish Water include 25% of unemployed people?

On the community employment schemes, it has been stated by the witnesses that participants in these schemes are considered employed and not recorded on the live register, yet for the purposes of claiming family income supplement and so on they are determined as employed. Either they are or are not employed. If they are employed and working 19.5 hours per week they should be entitled to claim the family income supplement during the 12 month period on the scheme.

I understand responsibility for the rent allowance will transfer to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. Are there any similar proposals in regard to the mortgage interest scheme or will it remain the responsibility of the Department of Social Protection?