Mr. John McKeon:

I will do my best to pick up the questions. As usual, if I do not pick up something or leave something out, the members can come back to me, either now or later, and we will do our best.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh raised the issue of dependent adults previously. He raised the issue of qualified adults who are not necessarily aware that they can split their claim and have access to services, and that, even if they are aware, they may not feel inclined to do so for cultural or social reasons. We recognise that as an issue. In the strong feedback that came to us in the consultation process, the second priority item was to increase awareness among jobseekers, including qualified adults, and employers of the available supports. What the Department can probably do in that space is make strong efforts to make recipients aware that the option of splitting the claim is available and make it easy to do it. I am not too sure there is much we can do about the embedded cultural biases relating to gender roles in Irish society and most western European societies. That is a longer-haul issue for society as a whole which goes back to education, family upbringing and all kinds of matters, but we can do our bit in terms of increasing awareness.

One of the issues that we have been asked to look at before, and we have taken a small step that way but we will look at it in more detail as part of Pathways to Work 2016, is whether we can allow a qualified adult who splits his or her claim and separates it out to include their time as a qualified adult to qualify for access to the full range of schemes and services. The back to education allowance has already been adapted. Therefore, such persons can access the back to education allowance and do not have to wait nine months if they have already been a qualified adult. Certainly one of the issues that is under strong consideration for the next instalment of Pathways to Work is whether that should be standard. We have noted the suggestions that have come from this committee in this regard and we have also received suggestions from other stakeholders. That is certainly in the pot, if I can put it that way. There is a long list of things to be considered and we have received a long list from the committee today. Obviously, it is a question for the Government to decide how much of that long list will end up being on the shortlist.

In terms of those who are not qualified and are dependant on income, there are two categories which are children in the home and the adult dependant who may not qualify for a claim because of his or her spouse's income. Perhaps Mr. Egan will talk about the adult dependant. I will talk about the question of children, which is one I get a lot. To give the figures in terms of a means test or assessing whether an 18 year old who lives at home will get access to jobseeker's allowance and his parents are working, if it is a typical two child family and the family has a typical mortgage, because there is a disregard for mortgage payments, pension payments, health insurance payments and so on, it is the net income that is looked at and the gross income would have to be in excess of €100,000 in a typical two child family for the child not to have access to at least some element of a payment. It might be a small amount that is available because it would be reduced. The proportion of people who live in households where the income is more than €100,000 is very low. In terms of prioritising resources, one would have to say that the people who are in those households, and one would be up at the high 90% before one would get there in terms of income distribution, probably have other networks and access to supports and other resources. If one is going to priorities resources, it would not necessarily be top of our list. That is something the Minister will consider and we will see in that regard. Perhaps Mr. Egan will comment on the qualified adult or the adult who cannot qualify for payment because of spousal means.