Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

What I am trying to do is move the people on jobseeker's, toforce the people who want to be more active off the jobseeker's and on to schemes. There seem to be places on the schemes and rules are holding up people staying on schemes. What is the policy position on this and has there been any change on the policy position on trying to encourage people to engage with the system? On the other hand, there is a small number of people who are on jobseeker's allowance who are unlikely, for a variety of reasons that would not qualify them for DA, or who do not want to engage with activation services. They might have personal issues in that regard. It seems to me there should be some discretion to make a case-by-case decision that people who cannot find it in themselves to engage do not have to engage. Otherwise, it winds up that the DA is saying they are capable of work but in reality they might not be that capable of work. This is a human problem that we are coming across but the system is becoming much more systematic to assist them than it used to be in the old days and there is a lot less discretion in such cases.