Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The reason I went further than the Minister proposed was to prevent people from entering long-term unemployment. All of us are aware of the compelling research showing that while long-term unemployment is not a binary state that begins directly after 12 months, it is associated with a range of socioeconomic problems. As the Minister has already stated he will not accept the amendment, I will be brief and ask him to reconsider it on Report Stage. Rather than waiting for someone to become long-term unemployed, it leaves a sufficient gap, of nine months, to prevent people from gaming the system by, for example, making themselves unemployed and waiting two or three months to avail of a tax credit for a new company. If we are accepting the principle of introducing this measure at the 12 month stage, a case can be made to go a little further in order to prevent those concerned from going into long-term employment given what we know about the bad things that tend to happen at that point.