Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are 16,500 people working. If the Deputy is asking for the total number who came in, I can tell him that about 99,000 came in, but they move. It involves all ages, and that includes children and pensioners. I have a breakdown from October which could be useful. There are 27,658 on jobseeker’s payments, 5,281 on the State pension non-contributory, 2,250 on the one-parent family payment and 1,033 on disability allowance.

We are engaging with about 30,000 people in terms of job activation measures. There are three problems. First, many are highly qualified people but they need to learn English. We expanded the CE scheme to allow them into it because we felt it was a good way for them to integrate into the community but also to learn the English language. Second, they sometimes change accommodation, which means they have to give up their job and it can be problematic. Third, single parents have childcare commitments and it restricts what they can do. Again, we are working with them. I feel that many of them have a lot to contribute to our society so we need to continue to see if we can make it easier for them to go back to work. We also want to make sure that if they can take up a job here, they will do so. We are doing that piece of work.