Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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I thank both groups for coming in and making their presentations and apologise for delaying them at the start of the meeting.

WALK's written submission mentioned the youth guarantee, but that was not touched on. The youth guarantee is an area where we can address some of the issues raised in its submission because if one looks at the creation of it at a European level, it was designed to include all young people. If one looks at it from its birth to where it is now in terms our national implementation plan, there have been significant changes to what was first conceived at European level and what will be implemented at a national level. At European level, it does not make any distinction between people with disabilities and people without disabilities. At EU level, it specifically states that it is for all people and it does not state ages, capabilities or abilities, and yet the national implementation plan states that it will be targeted, in the main, at people between 18 and 24 years of age and people in receipt of jobseeker's payments. That is a mistake which needs to be addressed. Do the witnesses have any views on that and on how the youth guarantee has the potential to help people with disabilities to access further education or even get into situations where they are able to access the labour market? Do they have any particular idea on that and on how the Government should implement it as opposed to what it proposes in the national implementation plan?

I have a couple of points to make in regard to carers. I agree completely with making the half-rate carer's allowance a core payment. I presume one of the reasons the Carers Association is looking to make it a core payment is because of the Government commitment to protect core social welfare payments. While that is in the programme for Government - I am not playing politics or anything - just stating that the half-rate carer's allowance will be a core payment will not protect it from potential cuts because we have seen how changes in calculation rates and criteria have already affected core social welfare payments. Everyone in this room would support reversing the decision in regard to the respite care grant, regardless of his or her political background. We will all put pressure on the Government to try to reverse that.

At the end of his contribution, Mr. Dunne spoke about the inherent conflict of interest in State agencies providing services. Will he elaborate on that and give us some examples of how that affects people? I refer to the State contributory pension. My colleague, Deputy Ó Snodaigh, our spokesperson on social protection, recently raised this in the Dáil with the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton. We spoke about the possibility of introducing a home-makers credit scheme. Does Mr. Dunne have any thoughts on that particular proposal?