Marie Moloney (Labour)
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I welcome the Department’s good initiatives, such as the roll-out of the Intreo offices which have been very successful, the 3,000 new JobsPlus places and the family dividend, which the Minister assured me will not interfere with the family income supplement.

Is it too early to know how many people on the JobsPlus scheme are kept on in permanent employment? We need to keep an eye on that to ensure employers do not avail of JobsPlus and then let the people go. I am concerned about part-time workers who receive unemployment assistance, sign off to work part-time and then sign on again. It is a nightmare to get back into the system. The witnesses will tell me this should not happen in the Intreo offices but it is happening. These people are asked for all their documents when they sign on again.

The family income supplement for people trying to get back to work cannot be changed for 12 months, regardless of whether their circumstances change. That is positive but I know someone who is expecting twins and has one child already but will not apply for the family income supplement until the twins are born because it cannot be increased if an extra child is born into the family within the 12 months. It should be possible for the family to put that into the application form.

I have looked through this document and have not seen one reference to people with disabilities. The Disability Federation of Ireland came before this committee a couple of weeks ago. It told us that people with disabilities have problems accessing these schemes and courses. They are not even mentioned in this document. I would like the witnesses’ comments on that and to hear what the Department will do for people with disabilities. Just because one has a disability does not mean one cannot work. These schemes should be open and accessible to people with disabilities, just as they are to those without disabilities.

There are 6,500 places on the MOMENTUM programme, one third for under 25 year olds. Were those places taken up? Were there enough places or do we need more?

The target for the JobPath programme was to move 75,000 people out of long-term unemployment and into work by the end of 2015. Are we on target? Where are we with that? The officials also mentioned that child care support is provided to people under JobPath. Could they elaborate on that? What kind of support is given to people for child care?

Like everyone, I welcome the drop in the percentage of people on the live register. Have we any figures that indicate the percentage of people who went into work and the percentage who emigrated?